The Heart of All Hearts
by C.B. Magique
Summary: Amu got over the loss of her normal life when she gained three guardian charas, but when a new force of darkness arrives it introduces a new concept of good and evil that will blow her mind out of the water.
1. Heartless

My first Shugo Chara entry, set somewhere between school time and summer holidays because it's before Kairi leaves them. I actually don't know how accurate I am in keeping people in character and such, but I assume I'm good at it because it's been a very long time since someone commented about my character portrayal.

This is a crossover with Kingdom Hearts, but it's set primarily in the Shugo Chara world with Amu as the central character. Kingdom Hearts is a video game created by the collaboration between Disney and Square Enix (just in case you didn't know) and the fantastic game reviews don't lie: it is awesome!! I have completed all three games in the series and anticipate the next ones. I am aware that some people reading in the Shugo Chara category won't know much about Kingdom Hearts so I'll do my best to explain characters, environments and concepts in detail.

I am using no OCs, all unfamiliar characters will most definitely be from Kingdom Hearts unless otherwise specified.

**Disclaimer: I don't hold the copyrights of Shugo Chara or Kingdom Hearts, but I love them both.**

* * *

Another day had come and gone at school and Amu was in a very excited mood. Summer break was just around the corner and she was determined to make plans for it. She was almost skipping down the street on her way home, thinking about days at the beach, shopping sprees with friends and maybe even a big party.

"Amu looks happy, desu!" Su said airily as always.

Ran and Miki nodded in agreement. "Summer vacation is coming," Ran explained. "Amu's got to make lots of plans to have fun!"

Suddenly Amu stopped, her face paling. "Uh! Why didn't you guys remind me before I got all this way?" she yelled at her guardians.

"Tell you what?" Ran asked, hiding behind Su and Miki, whose facial expressions became very interesting when they realised that they were on the front line.

"I was supposed to pick up the new My Microphone and surprise Ami for her birthday! Dad is gonna be so mad if I don't get back home with it." She turned around and made a mad dash for the mall.

The guardian charas sighed in relief. A light bulb went off in Miki's head. "Oh… that's right. Her dad ordered the microphone two weeks ago. Ami wanted it because it came out on her birthday."

"We were supposed to remind Amu that she had to pick it up before she got home," Su added.

"Hey, we have to catch up with Amu!" Ran exclaimed. The charas took off, following the cloud of dust Amu left in her wake.

Amu was panting by the time she got to the mall but was already looking around. "Where's that store dad ordered from? Damn, I should pay more attention when dad's talking."

"It's okay, Amu," Miki said, slipping into her bag and reappearing with a slip of paper. "Your dad gave you the receipt.

"Oh, right! This should have the store name on it," Amu said, snatching it and reading the information. "Wow… Ami's getting such an expensive toy."

"Hey, Hinamori-san!"

Amu blinked. The voice was familiar… "Kuukai?"

She turned around and the soccer superstar was there with another boy accompanying him. She couldn't help but blush. His spiky blond hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin were all flawless. He wore his uniform like a true rebel with the shirt untucked, the sleeves pushed up over his elbows and the blazer tied around his waist. On his right wrist was a black and white chequered wrist band and there were a black ring and a white ring on his index and middle finger. A silver pin that looked like a four-pointed star was pinned to the knot of his tie and on his bag were three keychains, each with a marble. Amu was momentarily captured by the marbles. One marble had a red fleur-de-lis suspended within the glass, another had a blue flame and the last had a yellow X-cross.

"Hey, Hinamori-san! Nice to see you again," Kuukai said, dragging his new friend to meet her. "How have you been?"

"I'm fine," Amu replied but in her head she was floating on a love heart squealing, _"He's coming this way! That hot rebel boy is coming!"_ It wasn't her usual train of thought but this guy wasn't the usual bad boy. He could make a goldfish stop and drool for longer than its memory span allowed.

Kuukai laughed. "Still the old obstinate character!" Amu blushed and began to rebuke but Kuukai cut her off quickly. "Hey, I want to introduce you to a new friend. This is Roxas. He just transferred to the middle school. He and I are in the same class."

"Oh, really?" Amu said, turning away so that they pair wouldn't see her blush. "The girls must get all excited."

"You wouldn't believe it!" Kuukai exclaimed with an exasperated sigh to emphasise his point. "It's really distracting when twenty or more girls in the class are staring at you all the time. Roxas doesn't seem to mind though. I wish I had your ignorance powers," he said to Roxas.

Roxas just shrugged.

Amu blinked, blush gone. "So, do you like the attention?"

"There is only one thing I like," Roxas answered emotionlessly. "Everything else is ambiguous."

Amu and the charas had question marks flying through their minds at that reply. Kuukai started laughing again.

"Isn't he great? He's been saying stuff like that all day, making kids pull funny faces like yours."

Amu huffed. "What's so funny about my face?"

Above them the charas watched on curiously. Miki hovered as close as she dared to Daichi.

"I have to admit," Ran piped up, "Amu's face was funny just then."

"But I have a strange feeling about that boy," Su said, worried look plastered to her face. "Don't you think his aura is a bit strange, desu?"

Miki turned to one of her many crushes. "I think so, but Daichi, you've been around him all day, right?"

Daichi nodded. "Kuukai took charge of showing him the school campus. Roxas' behaviour definitely is strange. It's like he has no emotions whatsoever."

"I wonder what that thing he likes is, desu," Su said out of nowhere.

"Well," Kuukai continued, "we're shopping around for some stuff for the basketball club. Do you want to help us out, Hinamori-san?"

"Um… sure! I only came to get this one thing for my little sister, but I think I can spare a little bit of time." Amu put the receipt away and followed the middle schoolers to the escalators. As they were moving up Amu piped up: "So, you decided to be on the basketball club, Kuukai?"

"Yeah and it's heaps of fun," Kuukai replied. "Roxas joined up too. He'll be attending regular practice with everyone else starting tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh? Roxas-kun, are you a sporting person like Kuukai?" Amu asked, turning to the spiky-haired blond.

Roxas looked at her. "Actually, I'm not a kind of person. If by 'sporting' you are implying that I like sports and that I enjoy it, I'll let you know that sport is not the thing I like and I don't enjoy anything."

Amu gaped at him, even more question marks flying through her head. Whatever admiration or attraction she had had for him before was completely gone. This guy wasn't social. Kuukai just started laughing again.

"Geez, Roxas, give her a break! You only just met her. Have some mercy."

Roxas turned his unfeeling gaze to Kuukai. "Mercy requires feelings of regret, pity and sorrow but I have no feelings so pray tell me how am I supposed to be merciful?"

The charas hovered above them, each with a sweat drop on their heads.

"Wow… that guy is so weird," Ran muttered.

"How could Kuukai stand being around him all day?" Miki wondered.

Kuukai chuckled. "I get where you're coming from. Hey, while we're here let's make the most of it."

"Wait! Don't you two have errands to run?" Amu scolded.

"Yeah, but when we're done we can have some fun. Roxas is still new here, so let's make him feel welcome in town."

"That would be pointless," Roxas said. "After all, I have no feelings."

Kuukai laughed again. Amu found it strange that the ex-Guardian had no problem with the attitude of this new boy. "Well, then," Kuukai said, "I guess it's just for my benefit then: just an excuse to show off a new friend."

* * *

A moving van was parked outside an old mansion that had been forgotten for quite a long time. The movers shut the doors and climbed into the front. The driver started the engine to begin the drive back to town.

"That place looked like a dump," said the passenger. "Why would anyone want to buy a house like that?"

"Maybe they're planning to fix it up," the driver replied with a shrug. "You never know, they could be loaded."

"With that many of them? I don't think that's possible."

"I said 'you never know'. One of those guys had a massive drum kit. Maybe they're famous musicians in teen pop-culture or something."

Back at the mansion a large group in black cloaks stood in the old driveway with their luggage. A tall, thin woman in a dark robe walked out in front of the rest of the group tapping her chin with a long, painted nail. The gardens were in disarray. The fountain was broken and chipped and some windows had been smashed. The walls had mould on them and the furniture that was still inside draped in white cloth was collecting phenomenal amounts of dust.

"This place… it looks absolutely disgusting!" the tall woman exclaimed. "However, this can all be fixed quite quickly."

"Are you sure?" said the tallest black cloaked figure. "I mean, about our goal. How could everything fall into one world like this?"

"Who cares! It was a stroke of good luck that they did. Are you that eager to begin operations, Axel?"

The cloaked figure was taken aback a bit.

"You can go and do whatever you like; I'll just have Zexion move all of your things into a room for you. But if you move out now, I'm warning you, you have to bring back results!"

"I understand," Axel replied, turning on his heel and walking away.

* * *

"Ice-cream!" Kuukai yelled. He passed out cones with double scoops for Roxas and Amu and had a single scoop in a bowl for the charas. He sat down with the others at the white plastic table outside the ice-cream parlour as the sun was beginning to set. "Man, it took a lot longer than I thought. It's almost time to go."

He began to dig into his top scoop of cookies and cream enthusiastically. Amu smiled and also started on her top scoop of strawberry swirl. She looked over at Roxas, noticing that he had two vanilla scoops.

"Uh… Roxas-kun," Amu began, almost dreading to ask a question for fear of his reaction. Roxas stopped the gentle licking of his ice-cream to look up at her. "I was just wondering… do you like vanilla ice-cream?" _"Just like Tadase-kun?"_

"It's ambiguous," Roxas replied. He returned to his ice-cream without another word.

Kuukai tried not to laugh this time but he couldn't help a snort. "Sorry, I just find his reaction to everything funny. I only got him vanilla because I don't know what he likes and he doesn't seem to care either way."

Amu glared at Kuukai. "You know that doesn't make it right!"

Kuukai stopped smiling and blinked. Roxas stared at her over his ice-cream.

"How do you know that he isn't just forcing it down? You should at least ask him which flavour he prefers."

Kuukai grinned sheepishly. "Um… I've already tried that. There's only one thing he likes and he won't tell me what it is. He doesn't have any preferences when it comes to food."

Amu blinked and looked at Roxas. "That can't be true! What's your favourite soda?"

Roxas was boring a hole in her head with his stare. "Flavour doesn't matter."

"You're only saying that now to back up what Kuukai said!"

"Type and flavour don't matter. Food is meant for eating," Roxas added.

A sudden squeal made Kuukai and Amu turn their heads. Two girls wearing the middle school uniform were standing a few metres away. One of them clutched a note to her chest. With a push from her friend she nervously made her way towards their table. She blushed and stood beside Roxas.

"Um… hello."

"Hi Ayanami-san," Kuukai beamed. The girl blushed.

"Er… I see that Kuukai-kun already has a date today…"

Amu blinked. "No! I'm not his date!"

"Did you need something Ayanami-san?" Kuukai asked.

"Um… it's just that… Roxas-kun." She turned to face him front on. Roxas spared her a glance. "I want you to take this note from me and read it later on." She held the note out in front of her like an offering.

Roxas quirked an eyebrow. Ayanami gulped.

"Even if I took that from you," Roxas finally said, "I wouldn't read it."

Amu appeared to be surprised, but on the inside she was screaming: _"Why did he go and say that? It's too cruel."_

"I would just throw it in the trash," Roxas went on. "I'm not interested in going out with anyone."

Ayanami began to cry, face flushed with embarrassment. She dropped her note and ran back to her friend, only she didn't stop there. Her friend ran after her and they were both gone fairly quickly. Amu rounded on Roxas, ready to yell something at him.

"Hey, Roxas," Kuukai said, finally taking a firmer tone. "You didn't have to do that. I think even you know the difference between indifference and cruelty."

"I wasn't being cruel, just blunt," Roxas said with a shrug. "Sometimes cruelty is merely the by-product of the truth. Or would you rather have me lie to her?"

Amu and Kuukai exchanged glances uneasily. When he put it that way, how were they supposed to say yes? While they both knew they would have preferred to hear him lie, they didn't want to sound like they were taking the lower moral grounds.

"Not really," Kuukai said after a while of hesitance.

"Then it's decided," Roxas said, standing up with his ice-cream. "It's late so we should all make an effort to return home. Hinamori-san, you have a present to deliver to your little sister."

Amu suddenly jumped to her feet, guardian charas suddenly in tow. "Oh, that's right!" She grabbed a colourful bag lying by her feet and began to run from the mall. "I'll see you later, Kuukai." The charas also waved their goodbyes to Daichi and Kuukai.

"Bye-bye Hinamori-san."

As Amu dashed on homewards Kuukai turned back to Roxas. "So, where do you live, Roxas?"

Roxas stared at him. "Why? Do you want to walk me home?"

Kuukai waved his hands in front of his face. "No, not the way you say it! I was just thinking that we could walk together if we lived down the same way but I won't bother if we're going to head in completely different directions."

"Are you trying to be indifferent now just to show off in front of me," Roxas asked.

Kuukai's eye twitched. "Man, you're such a handful."

"If you think so," Roxas shrugged. "We live in different directions."

"How can you come to that decision without knowing where I live?"

"I don't know."

Roxas began to walk off towards the street and a set of traffic lights. Kuukai sighed and shouldered his school bag. He picked up the plastic bags holding the new equipment for the basketball club and began to walk in the opposite direction. It seemed Roxas had been right after all.

The light was already green by the time Kuukai had reached the crossing, so he just kept walking across the road. As he did he noticed a strange man on the other side. He was tall and lanky and wearing a black coat with the hood drawn up and black pants, gloves and boots. He made the crossing as well. When they passed Kuukai thought he might have actually been passing a campfire. Why was there such an intense heat radiating off this man? When he was safely on the other side of the road Kuukai turned around to see where the man had gone but the black-clothed figure had disappeared completely.

* * *

"Oh no! It's already dark and I haven't even made it halfway there!" Amu exclaimed, running as hard as she could.

"Don't be discouraged Amu!" Ran cheered. "Run! Run! Run!"

"You're not helping!" Amu snapped.

"What are you going to tell your parents as an excuse?" Miki asked. "You can't tell them you were hanging out with boys or your dad will have a stroke."

Amu skidded to a halt. "That's right? What am I going to do?"

"Don't panic, desu," Su said kindly. "You'll find something."

"Are you all suggesting that I lie?" Amu said.

"You do it all the time with your outside character," Miki supplied. "Why not?"

"Miki! How can you say such a thing?" Amu whined. "Using an outside character and lying to my parents' faces are two completely different things."

"I agree with Miki," Ran said. "There's nothing different about it at all."

Suddenly Su squeaked. "Look over there, desu!"

Amu and the other two charas followed Su's pointing finger to where four X Eggs were hovering about, muttering the word 'useless' over and over again. At a corner not too far away four young girls were walking out on their way home from a concert. Their eyes were blank; their dreams were taken and sealed away inside the X Eggs. One girl suddenly fainted and the others followed suit.

"Ran," Amu said, turning to her chara. The pink chara nodded. "My own heart: Unlock!"

The X Eggs were startled by the bright pink light that ensured during the Character Transformation. Amulet Heart appeared before them.

"Okay, Ran, let's go! Heart Rod!" The pink Heart Rod appeared in a flash. The X Eggs got the message and began to flee. "Hold it!"

Amulet Heart took off with Miki and Su trailing. They leapt over rooves and gardens chasing them down until they finally cornered off the X Eggs near the power grid of the old amusement park. Amu hadn't even realised they'd come this far until she got there, but she pushed the memories aside and faced the X Eggs.

"Ha! You can't get away now." Amu spun her Heart Rod and threw it at the eggs, trapping them in the glittery ring it created. She made the heart shape with her fingers over the Humpty Lock now that the time was right. "Negative Heart… lock on!"

A tall, black-coated figure watched from the shadows. If there had been any sufficient lighting it might have been possible to see him smirk at his findings. A small flame burst to life in his palm. Upon his will, the X Eggs also burst into flame. They shrieked in agony before finally breaking. Amu stared wide-eyed. Before she could even finish her attack the X Eggs had been mysteriously destroyed. Miki and Su gasped at the bizarre sight of those Heart's Eggs shattering into little flaming pieces and disappearing forever, along with someone's dreams.

"Oh, how terrible," Su whimpered. "Amu was so close to purifying them, desu."

"How did those X Eggs suddenly burst into flame like that?" Ran wondered, speaking through the Humpty Lock.

"I don't know," Amu replied. She gritted her teeth and turned around, running into the amusement park. "Hey, I know there's someone here! You must have burnt those X Eggs! Show yourself right now!" she screamed into the darkness.

The figure in black had heard her of course, and almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the request. "Aren't you the naïve one," the figure said with a smooth, male voice. "Why don't you stay and have some fun for a little bit? You are at an amusement park after all."

All of a sudden the lights and rides came to life. Amu turned around. One of the girls from before was standing by the breaker. She was surrounded by the four girls who had just lost their Heart's Eggs.

"Wh-what's going on?" Amu stuttered.

"Get out of there Amu!" Miki yelled. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Without their Heart's Egg to support them," the smooth male voice continued, "the hearts are open slather. Darkness, feed on their unguarded souls; do with their useless forms as you please."

Little dark puddles formed under the girls' feet and blackness began to creep up their legs and engulf their entire bodies. Dark wisps floated upwards and curled around them, creating a mist that was impossible to see past. The mist squeezed the bodies down to a more compact size, taking on a more solid form. All that was left of the girls were four little, black creatures with yellow eyes and antennae. They hopped around, waving their clawed hands about and their antennae twitched in Amu's direction. Su covered her mouth in shock and grabbed Miki for security.

"What are those monsters?" she asked Miki.

"I-I don't know!" Miki said.

"Hey, Amu," Ran said. Amu looked down at the lock. "I think we can do this. Remember what that mysterious voice said? These are the hearts that the Heart's Eggs belong to. Maybe we can purify them the same way as the X Eggs and X Characters."

Amu nodded. "I think you may be right." The black creatures lunged for her. Amu fended them off with a spinning Heart Rod. They were able to sink into the ground and their flattened bodies crawled towards her. Even if she smacked them it seemed that they couldn't be harmed in this state. They all rose out of the ground at the same time, reaching for her. Amu leaped out of the way and saw that they were all in one place. She ensnared them with the binding ring created by the Heart Rod as it boomeranged back to her. She fell back to earth only a few feet away and made the heart shape with her fingers.

"Negative Heart… lock on!"

The black creatures were trapped in the attack and it seemed to be having an effect on them. The man in black, however, chuckled at the attempt.

"Open Heart!"

The energy flow increased, which normally allowed the X Eggs to be transformed back into their normal forms. But nothing happened to the black creatures. They appeared to be a bit frazzled by the sudden energy but other than that, they were completely unharmed. Amu stared wide-eyed at them. The binding ring easily broke, allowing the creatures to wander again. They sunk into the ground and advanced towards Amu. She leapt onto the carousel but the creatures followed her up there, scaling the poles with ease. Amu found herself trapped. She had poured so much energy into trying to purify the hearts she didn't have any left. Her Character Transformation with Ran broke and her chara appeared beside her drained of energy. Su and Miki immediately flew to her side to help her stay afloat in the air.

"I don't understand," Ran huffed. "Why didn't that work."

Amu didn't answer. They all knew what she was going to say anyway. The creatures rose out of the carousel roof and stood before her, their antennae twitching. Who knew what they wanted. They jumped towards Amu. Amu squeezed her eyes shut when she heard Su exclaiming something excitedly. She looked up and the only thing she could see was someone in red and black wielding two similar weapons land in front of her and lunge to attack the black creatures. In three practiced swipes the black creatures were easily dissipated into black smoke and little pink hearts were released. The hearts rose into the sky and then disappeared in a flash of light.

The weapons wielded by Amu's hero were unique to say the least. They resembled keys, but also resembled swords. One was black with a squarish head and a black crown on the key chain hanging off a purple hilt with jagged knuckle bows. The other was white with a star-shaped head and had a pink, star-shaped key chain hanging from the handle with wing-shaped knuckle bows. Unique keychains hung off the end of the handles. In a flash of white light the keys disappeared and the person turned to face Amu. Her eyes widened when she saw the face and recognised him.

"Ro… Roxas?"

Roxas was wearing a black shirt with a red, hooded jacket. His baggy pants were mostly black and both legs had the red fleur-de-lis that Amu had seen in one of his marbles. His shoes and fingerless gloves were also predominantly red.

"Roxas, what just happened?" Amu demanded. "Why didn't Open Heart work on them?"

"I don't know the nature of your attack so how am I supposed to know?" Roxas replied. "Besides, those creatures were the Heartless. Their existence occurs when hearts are consumed by the darkness."

Amu blinked. "Consumed by darkness? Then… what happened to the girls?"

"You mean their bodies?" Roxas clarified. "They're gone. Usually when a person loses their heart to the darkness, their bodies are taken as well."

"What? Are they dead?"

"I guess that's the only word we can use to describe them. They certainly aren't alive anymore."

"Murderer!" Amu screamed at him.

Roxas stared at her. "Why?"

"Those black creatures – the Heartless – you killed them, and you killed those girls with them! How could you do that? Why didn't you think of saving them before you decided to slaughter them?"

"When a person loses both their body and heart to a Heartless there is no hope for them. Perhaps if the body remained when the heart was lost, maybe the heart might somehow return. But the heart would have to be found first. If you return a heart to a different body, you might create an entirely new person altogether. One thing is for sure, the heart doesn't willingly return to the body it was released from."

"I don't understand what you're talking about! How does this justify killing innocent people?"

The tall, coated man stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the amusement park. "Hey, hey," he said, loud enough to grab the attention of Amu and Roxas. Roxas narrowed his eyes.

"It's you again."

"What?" Amu said. Roxas wrapped an arm around her waist and jumped down from the carousel. Amu blushed and pushed away as soon as they'd touched the ground.

"You know," the tall man continued, "it's not fair to jump to an accusation like that. What Roxas is trying to say is: there is no way to purify a Heartless once it is created. It has to be killed and the heart released before anything useful can be done with it. There is no way to return a person gone Heartless back into the human they once were."

"That's not entirely true," Roxas argued. "There is one way…"

"And how many times has that worked, Roxy? The last time I checked, the count was only twice."

"That doesn't make a difference. The fact is that there is another way. The problem is that there are too few occasions when the criteria to achieve it are met."

The tall man scoffed at that. "Aren't you the idealist." He pulled down his hood, revealing bright red spikes of hair and green eyes with triangular tattoos beneath them.

Amu stared at him. "Who are you?"

The redhead turned to her with a smirk. "The name's Axel, got it memorised?"

"Axel…?"

"And what's that you've got around your neck? Looks like a pretty special padlock. What does it do when it opens?"

Amu placed a hand over the Humpty Lock. "I don't know. You don't have the key to open it, so you won't ever get to find out!"

"No biggie. Roxas, give her a hand."

Roxas glared at Axel. "No."

Axel frowned. "Why not?"

"Well… why?" Roxas countered. "If I don't know what it does and it's of no interest to me, why should I try to open it?"

"How about just to prove that the Keyblade can open anything?" Axel suggested.

"Keyblade…?" Amu repeated.

Roxas summoned the white weapon he had held before. Amu stared at its strange key shape and realisation dawned on her.

"I suppose it's worth a shot," Roxas thought. "But there's really no reason. I don't know what it does and it's of no interest to me."

"What if it could return what you lost?" Axel said.

Roxas shrugged. "I know there are other ways to get back what I lost. I don't know for certain if the padlock will return it."

"But none of them are any better than trying this untested method."

"It won't work."

"But you-"

"Even though I possess the Keyblade, it doesn't always function as it's supposed to in my hands."

Axel chuckled. "I suppose that's plausible. Then perhaps…" He turned his gaze back to Amu. Amu squeaked and clutched the Humpty Lock tightly. "Looks like you won't be letting go of that anytime soon. Take this then."

He took a card with a jagged shape at the top and tossed it at Amu's feet. Amu bent down to pick it up. On both sides was a picture of a sphere with a little town, a train line and a large clock tower with four prominent bells on it.

"Use that as you see fit." Axel held his hand out to the side and a large, dark, ellipsoidal portal just large enough for him to fit through appeared. "I can tell you've got a great potential in you. Don't let it go to waste."

Axel stepped into the portal and the portal slowly faded away. Amu blinked, completely confused. She turned to Roxas with a feeling that he knew exactly what was going on.

"Hey," she began.

"Don't try to get involved with Axel. He is only working towards a goal of his own benefit. To a person with feelings such as you, he might come across as unscrupulous or selfish."

"So does that mean he's a bad person?"

"If that's how you interpret him."

Amu huffed. Miki and Su floated down with Ran who had regained enough energy to not need their support for a while. "Why don't you give me a straight answer? Is Axel a bad guy or not?"

"Have you heard of William Shakespeare?"

Amu was taken aback. "Well… yeah, but I don't see-"

"Then you should know one of his famous quotes: 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so'. It depends on how you interpret the situation. If you believe Axel is a 'bad guy' then so be it." Roxas began to walk away, intending to leave it at that.

"Wait!"

Roxas stopped and turned to her.

"I'm still confused. What's the deal with the Heartless? Why did they appear? And why does it seem that you know Axel?"

"We were once friends," Roxas said, then after a second of thought, "if you can call it that. As for the Heartless, who knows? I suggest you take Axel's advice and use that card."

"But…" Amu tried to argue, staring at her card.

"I suggest," Roxas said, "that you start heading home now. It's already late."

"What? Ah! It's true! It's dark! I've got to go find Ami's present! I left it on the street when I transformed! Oh, darn it!"

"Amu, calm down," Su said. "We'll find it, don't worry."

Amu took off in a cloud of dust on the search for her little sister's present.

* * *

The bag was a little dirty but the toy was still intact. When Amu finally made it home her parents were waiting by the door expectantly. Instantly her outside character was activated.

"What?"

"Amu, do you have any idea what time it is?" her mother scolded.

"It's late," Amu replied.

"Of course it's late!" her father exploded. "Late enough to make us worry and certainly late enough to have been out with a boy! And why is Ami's present all dirty?"

"I wasn't out with a boy," Amu said, the lie quickly formulated in her head. "Ami's present is fine, only the bag is dirty. I met some friends at the mall and spent some time with them. I could have been home earlier but some bullies tried to steal Ami's present."

She could almost swoon when she saw the stars immediately appear in her parents' eyes.

"And you protected it for little Ami-chan!" they finished for her. "Amu, you're such a wonderful big sister!" They almost crushed her with a huge hug.

"Ack! Okay, okay! I get it. You're grateful! By the way, where is Ami?"

"She already fell asleep," her mother explained. "She was disappointed when you didn't show up with her present."

"I think she'll be so happy when she hears about what you did to save it," her father added.

"Yeah, yeah. I should get ready for bed," Amu decided, taking off her shoes and scampering upstairs. She stopped by her sister's room first. Inside the nightlight glowed wonderfully and illuminated Ami's troubled face.

"I'm sorry, I was late Ami," Amu apologised. She took the toy out of the dirty bag and placed it on the bed beside her. "Happy Birthday."

She backed out of the room, shutting the door quietly. Her charas floated over her head with smiles on their faces.

"That was sweet of you, desu," Su said. Amu nodded.

"Let's go to bed," she suggested. "It's been a long day and I'm tired."

* * *

I'm actually really happy with this: this fanfic concept just seems so right. It's like Shugo Chara and Kingdom Hearts were meant to meet. Hey, do you think that if I appealed to Square Enix they would consider putting the Shugo Chara world in Kingdom Hearts III? (of course, this question only applies to you if you know what I'm talking about).


	2. Strange New Town

I'm sort of excited about this story - not so excited about getting only 2 reviews - but it might just be that people expect to read a little more before writing anything... or the super long chapters.

Also - I didn't really think about this when I put up the first chapter - it's pretty hard to explain some things in detail, especially something as weird as the Keyblade. So, I'm going to tell you that the names of Roxas' Keyblades in the previous chapter were **Oathkeeper** and **Oblivion **so that you can look them up if you need more detail and a visual.

* * *

Amu was staring off into space before class as usual. The teacher hadn't turned up yet. Apparently Amu's outside character had managed to scare away another teacher. Not that Amu cared right now. She had bigger things to think about right now, like the Heartless and the strange card she had been given the previous night. How was she supposed to use it? Was she supposed to make a collection of them and see what they would do?

"Hinamori-san," a kind voice broke her thoughts. She looked up to stare at the face of Tadase Hotori. "Is something wrong?"

Amu shook her head. "Uh… no. Not at all." She couldn't help the slight pink tinge on her cheeks from coming out.

"Oh, but you seemed so distant today," Tadase said. "I sort of wonder what this new teacher will be like."

"I guess," Amu replied, not sure what else to say. "Tadase-kun, have you heard from Kuukai recently?"

Tadase blinked. "He spoke to me on the phone last night. Why?"

"Did he mention a new friend?"

"Yeah, a boy by the name of Roxas. Souma-kun seems to like him a lot. And you met up with him yesterday – he talked about that too."

Amu nodded. "But he didn't mention anything about Roxas' character, did he?"

"He said Roxas had a unique character but he didn't elaborate. Is there something bizarre about him?"

"I think so, but I can't figure it out."

"Teacher's coming!" someone yelled. Tadase smiled and took his seat a few desks away.

The classroom door slid open and a tall, thin woman walked in wearing a purple dress that reached her knees and had a high collar. She wore high platform stilettos that were certainly not appropriate for school and had a charm necklace hanging from her neck. Her dark hair was done up in a bun on one side of her head and her face was thin and pointed. She wore black lipstick and green and purple eye shadow like a witch. In one hand she carried a thin crop; in the other she had an ugly crow in a cage.

"This is the Sixth Grade Star Class, isn't it?" she said. The sound of her voice sent chills down every student's spine. "Good, I'm in the right place then. I recently moved here from overseas and I was lucky to get a job like this so quickly." She placed the crow on the desk and turned around to write her name. "I'm Maleficent. I brought in a class pet as well. It's a good thing summer holidays are just around the corner. I'll judge how well this class performs and the student who I think deserves it most can take him home for the summer."

The class stared at the bird uneasily. It suddenly cawed, making everyone jump.

"There's no need to be scared of him. He actually has a very nice temperament once you get to know him. Now, where do we begin?"

Amu started to switch off at about here and stared out the window. It was a nice day outside, not too hot yet. She wanted to enjoy it. She looked down at the leafy green trees and grass, imagining that summer vacation was already here. However, she saw a strange figure on the school grounds. It was another cloaked person like Axel, only this person didn't appear to be as thin. He stood there, seeming to stare up at Amu and clutching a heavy tome close to his chest.

"Hinamori-san? Hinamori-san?"

Amu suddenly turned around and gasped, seeing Maleficent-sensei standing right next to her. No teacher had ever freaked her out like Maleficent did.

"Hinamori-san, I'm trying to call the roll," the teacher explained. "Please keep your mind within this classroom."

Amu gulped and averted her gaze. "Sure…"

There were gasps and whispers whirring through the classroom.

"My goodness, did you see her jump when she saw Maleficent-sensei?"

"She gives me the creeps. I don't blame Hinamori-san."

"This teacher is going to be tough if even Hinamori-san can get scared of her."

Maleficent nodded. "Good." She continued to rattle off names on her roll.

Amu turned back to the window. The person in black was gone.

* * *

Before she knew it, Amu was at the end of the school day, finally relaxing in the Royal Garden after an hour of solid Guardian work – even if she was only sharpening pencils again. And again it seemed only three of the five were doing any real work. The charas were off playing whatever little game they usually played (for some reason Kiseki kept thinking there was some serious mission in this game). Su broke away from the game to witness the end of the meeting. Ran turned away from Kiseki yelling at Kusu-kusu for not taking the game seriously and noticed Su watching Tadase close the meeting.

"Su, is something wrong?" she asked, hovering up to meet the clover chara.

"Not really, desu," Su replied. "I was just wondering if Amu plans to tell everyone what happened last night."

"It certainly is important," Ran agreed.

However, the meeting closed and Amu had mentioned meeting with Kuukai but didn't say a word about the Heartless or the strange man named Axel.

"Ah! Amu-chi!" Yaya whined. "Yaya misses Kuukai too! Yaya wants to hang out with Kuukai!"

"Yaya, calm down," Amu said. "I'm sure Kuukai will call you sometime. He's got a new friend in middle school and-"

"What! Kuukai went and got a new friend without telling me!" Yaya exclaimed. "That's so mean."

"It's only natural," Kairi said, pushing his glasses up. "Souma-kun has moved on to middle school and it's difficult to stay in touch with old friends. As much as you want to, you can't hang out with him as much any more."

"At least not until _I_ get to middle school! Just you wait!" Yaya insisted.

The Guardians parted ways and Amu ran off home. Ran floated over her shoulder with an uncharacteristic worried look on her face. "Amu, why didn't you say anything?"

"About what?" Amu said.

"About the Heartless or about Axel!" Ran replied. "Don't you think that was important?"

"But what am I supposed to tell them? I don't know what's going on myself."

"You could at least mention it," Miki added. "Someone might know something."

"But you saw what Roxas did. If I told everyone how would they react? Rima would just go out and kill them all."

"Have more faith in your friends, desu," Su chided.

"Su's right," Ran said. "It's not fair of you to give up on them like that."

Amu looked at her feet. "I suppose… okay, if it makes you all happy, I'll call Tadase and tell him as soon as we get home."

The charas gasped.

"Amu! You're actually going to call him," Miki said. Amu froze on the spot when she realised what she'd just proposed.

"One step further in your relationship!" Ran teased. "Amu's getting brave – now she can call and ask Tadase out on a date. Hooray!"

"Ran!" Amu yelled. The pink chara took off and Amu gave chase furiously. How could that little wretch suggest such a thing? "I'm only going to tell him about the Heartless problem over the phone! We're not going anywhere!"

"Ran's got the right idea!" Miki agreed.

"H-hey! You guys don't get it!"

"Amu's too shy, desu."

"As always," Miki scoffed. She knocked on the door of a house. "We're already home, you know."

Amu stared at the door before her. It did look like her home's door. "Oh alright, I'll get it over with… but I'm not going to ask him out."

"Still being obstinate," Ran crooned.

Amu pouted and tried to ignore her as she grabbed for the handle. The door was locked. Amu blinked, totally confused by that. Her parents hadn't said anything about leaving the house tonight. The charas looked on confused.

"Why's the door locked?" Su asked.

"I don't know, but don't worry," Amu assured them. She produced a key from a pocket in her bag. "I've got a spare house key!"

"Hooray!" Su and Ran cheered. Miki couldn't really see what was so fantastic about carrying around a spare house key and started to draw something in her sketchbook.

Amu slipped the key into the lock and turned it but the door refused to unlock. She tried with all her might but it wouldn't budge.

"I don't get it, why isn't the door opening?"

"Amu, look at that," Miki said, pointing to a little drawing above the door.

Amu looked up and saw a little sphere with a town, a train line and a clock tower. She instantly recognised it and pulled the card out of her bag. It glowed brilliantly and flew from her hands, sticking to the door. A dark keyhole appeared in the middle of the glowing card and the clicking sound of a door unlocking could be heard. Amu hesitantly grabbed the handle of the door again and turned it. It opened smoothly without so much as a creak. Behind the door was a bright light. Amu only needed to take one step into it.

On the other side was a paved road lined by shops and houses. The day was fading into dusk and the stars were just about to twinkle in. Amu stepped away from the door and peered around the corner of the street. It travelled down in a steep incline where a group of young boys were helping an older man push a heavy load up the hill into a garage. The shops weren't about to close but people were beginning to walk away from the little street on their way home.

The creak of a door closing and a lock clicking grabbed Amu's attention. She whipped around just in time to catch the door back home disappearing. She squealed.

"How am I going to get home? Where am I?" she exclaimed, running back up the street to see if she could find another door or at least someone who could tell her where she was. At the crest of the hill the street ended in a wide, empty square with a breathtaking view of the town in the twilight and a looming train station. Towering out of the station was a large clock tower with four prominent bells.

"It says 'Central Station'," Miki noticed.

"But this doesn't look like the main station back home, desu," Su added.

Ran floated over Amu's shoulder. "Hey, Amu, should we go inside? Maybe we can get directions."

"I don't know…" Amu muttered.

"Let's just give it a try! Come on!" Ran said, flying over to the door. "Come and open the door, Amu."

Amu reluctantly joined Ran and opened the door heading into the station. They headed in, passing the ticket booth and noticing that they were on the top floor of a multi-level building standing before platforms 0, 1 and 2. Amu stared in awe at the giant building and wondered how many storeys of train station lay before her.

"Wow, I've never seen such an extensive train line, even in the Tokyo subway," Miki remarked as she and the other charas examined the map of the station. "Do you think people here have cars?"

"They wouldn't need cars with so many trains, desu," Su said.

Amu glanced at the clock. It read that the time was only four o'clock even though it appeared to be almost six if one went by the colours of the sky.

"Attention passengers," the PA announced. "The train from Greensville Station will be arriving at Platform 2. Please stand behind the yellow line. Passengers exiting or entering the train must do so from carriages 1, 2, or 3."

The sliding door that closed off Platform 2 opened and a short train with only five carriages slowly drove into the station. Thanks to the way the platforms were designed, only carriages 1 through 3 were able to connect with the platform. The doors opened and immediately young people in uniforms began to rush out: girls in blue dresses and white shirts with red bow ties and boys wearing white shirts and blue trousers or shorts and blue ties. Most of them passed Amu without a second glance.

"Amu, here's your chance," Ran said. "Ask for directions."

"Oh… yeah," Amu said, shyness and nervousness taking over. "Um, hey, I need help," she said, grabbing some random boy by his shirt. He turned around and gave her a glare that matched her outside character. On the inside, Amu was almost ready to pee herself.

The boy she'd grabbed onto was a blond wearing the trouser form of the uniform who was missing his tie for some reason. His backpack was slung over one shoulder and his hair was spiked up. His green eyes refused to yield to Amu's outside character. "What do you want?"

"Um…"

"Hayner!" exclaimed a girl. A brunette ran up to them wearing the uniform correct to the letter, but with her socks messily falling down her legs. A short, black-haired boy (who was also a bit overweight) followed her. "Knock it off! I won't let you stoop so low as to bully elementary school students!"

The blond's eye twitched. "I don't bully…"

The brunette jogged up to Amu, leaning down briefly to pull up her socks. "I'm sorry. Hayner can be a bit rough around the edges but when you know him he's really a nice guy."

"By the way," the overweight boy added. "I've never seen your uniform before. Is there a new elementary school around that we don't know about?"

"Uh… not that I know," Amu replied, looking away.

"Well that's strange," the brunette muttered. Suddenly a light bulb flickered on in her head. "Aha! Elementary schools get let off for summer vacation earlier than high school! So you're just wearing that because you feel like it, right?"

Amu just stared.

"In any case, we're sorry for our friend's behaviour," said the shorter boy. "We'll let you get home, now."

"Hang on," the blond said. "You wanted something, didn't you?" His friends glanced at him. "You said you needed help."

"Er…" Amu stammered.

"Come on, Amu," Miki said. "Just tell them that you're lost and need help getting home."

"You're lost!" exclaimed the brunette. "Oh, that's awful."

Amu gaped. "Did I say that out loud?"

"No, that little flying thing said so," said the overweight boy. "By the way, what are those things floating around your head?"

Amu froze. Her charas blinked at the strangers.

"They're so cute," said the brunette. She held out her hands. "Please, would one of you sit in my hands?"

"Okay," Su quickly agreed, much to the shock of Ran and Miki. She floated down and seated herself comfortably in the cupped hands offered. "Your hands are nice and soft, desu."

The brunette gazed at the green chara with her eyes overflowing with admiration. "She's so cute! Like a little fairy. I wish I had one."

"It doesn't belong to you," the blond pointed out, "There's no way…"

All of a sudden a large, masculine hand grabbed Su roughly and yanked her out of the brunette's hands. She turned around to find another blond boy with a beanie covering his hair wearing the same uniform, only with black replacing all the blue. He was also lacking a tie and had a scar across the bridge of his nose between his blue eyes. A silver-haired girl with one of her crimson eyes hidden behind her hair stood to his left in perfect uniform, even her socks were kept up neatly. To her left, a dark-skinned boy with no tie and the sleeves torn off his shirt stood grinning.

"What's this?" asked the blond, turning Su around and upside down. "Where'd you losers find a fairy?"

"Seifer! Stop it," the brunette yelled, trying to grab for Su. The blond easily held her out of her reach. "That's not mine!"

"So? It's still pretty cute," Seifer said, bringing Su closer to his face. "What did they used to say about fairies again?"

"Good luck," The silver-haired girl droned.

"I thought it was something about wishes, y'know?" said the dark-skinned boy.

"Oh yeah! Catching fairies brings good luck… or one special wish. I wonder which it is," Seifer smirked. "Only one way to find out. Thanks for the gift."

"No!" Amu finally piped up. "You can't take Su away!"

Seifer smirked at her. "Su? So this fairy has a name, huh?"

"Yeah," Amu growled back.

"I won't let you kidnap a poor little girl's fairy," the blond said, dropping his backpack and unzipping it. He pulled out a blue bat with a yellow handle. "At least I won't stand by idly. Let's struggle for it!"

"Hayner!" the brunette chided. "You can't do something so reckless with someone's precious object on the line! Especially if you're struggling against Seifer."

"You'll lose," the shorter boy added.

Seifer scoffed. "You want to struggle against me? Fine, just don't cry if I hit you too hard." The dark-skinned boy pulled a bat identical to Hayner's out of his backpack and handed it to Seifer. "Thanks, Rai. This won't take long."

He let go of Su, allowing her to float off dizzily. Suddenly Hayner charged for Seifer. They swung their bats simultaneously and were immediately locked in a stalemate. Seifer, with his superior strength, pushed Hayner away with the bat and struck him twice; hitting both sides. Hayner backed off for only a second before coming to attack once again, feinting a jab at Seifer's face and parrying the next blow to his stomach. Seifer pulled back for more room to attack and Hayner saw the opportunity to jab at Seifer. Seifer easily sidestepped out of the way and whacked Hayner in the back.

Amu stared with her mouth agape in shock. The brunette and the black-haired friends stood beside her cheering Hayner on, despite their dissent for his choice to start such a thing in the first place. A crowd of students began to gather cheering for their favourite and chanting 'struggle' over and over.

"Isn't this a little bit violent?" Amu asked, wondering why the security guards, who were standing by in case something started, weren't breaking up the fight.

"I suppose, but at least Seifer seems to be playing by the rules this time," the brunette commented. "Go Hayner!"

"Yeah, you can do it this time!" the shorter boy yelled. He looked at Amu, seeing her confused expression. "This is the first time you've seen a struggle fight, isn't it?"

Amu nodded. "But why are they fighting in the first place?"

"It's a sport," the boy explained. "Two competitors struggle for victory, but they're only allowed to attack each other using those bats. In tournaments, they give both players one hundred orbs and the aim is to obtain the opponent's orbs and hold more orbs than your opponent before time runs out. You can win automatically if you knock out the opponent or steal all of his orbs."

Suddenly the brunette gasped. Amu turned back to the fight only to find that it had concluded with Seifer as the clear winner. Hayner was huffing and panting, struggling to get back to his feet. Seifer grinned down at him with the struggle bat slung over his shoulder.

"Yeah, that's right. Kneel, loser," he taunted.

"I'm… not done yet," Hayner said, still trying to get to his feet.

"As if!" Seifer chucked the bat back to Rai. "Thanks for entertaining me, worm. Come on, guys, let's beat it."

"Yeah," Rai quickly agreed as Seifer strolled past on his way out of the station. The girl said nothing but followed anyway. "Man, Seifer, you were so cool back there, y'know! You really put that kid back in his place, y'know."

"Yeah, Rai, I know," Seifer sighed.

* * *

"Hayner, you're lucky Seifer played a clean game today," the short boy told the blond.

"Mm," the brunette nodded. "You didn't get so beaten this time."

Amu and the two friends had taken Hayner down the quiet little street where Amu had first turned up and down to a place they called 'Tram Common'. The place was a huge tram station with trams coming and going, people bustling around and shops and businesses operating everywhere. Above every shop a home was built for the owners, making the area partly residential. Miki and Su were the first to notice how well engineered the trams were – they hardly made a sound and seemed to run on their own internal battery. They'd taken Hayner straight to an accessory shop run by a young lady who let them in quickly upon seeing Hayner. She took them to the back and got out a first aid kit that seemed too large to be of use solely in the shop.

"Thank-you Stella," said the brunette.

The young woman nodded, opening the first aid kit. She was short and had blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She wore a simple blue shirt and a long, yellow skirt with dark blue slip-on shoes. She pressed a cold, wet cloth against Hayner's cheek to bring down the swelling of his face a little. "Tch, Hayner," she said. "Fighting with Seifer _again_. Your grandmother isn't going to be happy when she sees you come home in this state again."

"Shut up," Hayner grumbled, but said no more in his defence.

"Feel guilty, huh?" said the overweight boy, making Hayner growl at him.

"Hey," Stella snapped, "you know, you two could help me out since I have to take care of Hayner. Look after the shop for me; I don't want to miss any customers."

"Alright," the brunette said. "Come on Pence, to the counter!"

She grabbed the shorter boy and dragged him back to the front of the shop. Amu blinked, feeling every bit left out since they'd gotten there.

"Hey, what about Amu?" Ran blurted out.

"Oh yeah," said the brunette. "Why don't you come out and help us? The more the merrier!"

Amu nodded, joining them at the main body of the shop. There were accessories galore everywhere. There were shelves on every wall containing displays of every accessory Amu could think of. There was even a grid on the ceiling where more accessories were hung for display.

"I'll work the cash register and you girls can serve the customers," said Pence, taking his place by the machine.

The brunette turned to Amu and caught her gawking at all of the accessories. The charas were having a great time playing with the accessories hanging from the ceiling.

"Hey, Amu," Ran said, coming back with a silver chain. "Try this on! It'll look great!"

"Actually, you should put that back," the brunette said to Ran. "Stella gets iffy when people play around in her shop. I'm sorry we haven't introduced ourselves properly. I'm Olette. This is Pence and our friend in the back is obviously Hayner. Those older guys back at Central Station were Seifer, Fuu and Rai."

"I'm Ran!" Ran immediately burst out, bringing out her pom-poms and shaking them around. "This is Miki, that's Su and our owner here is Hinamori Amu."

"Nice to meet you, Hinamori," Pence said.

Amu smiled. "The same goes for me. Hey, Olette-san – it's okay for me to call you that, right?"

"You don't have to add the 'san'… whatever that means. Just call me plain, old, Olette."

"Um, okay," Amu said nervously. "Olette, about those bullies… do they harass you regularly."

Olette laughed. "Those guys aren't really bullies. They're the leading members of the Disciplinary Committee. Seifer founded it some time ago and has been acting as a town vigilante ever since. Actually, the only person Seifer really tries to bully is Hayner."

"I like Hayner, desu," Su remarked. "He's such a brave person. But I don't like Seifer. He was acting so mean, desu."

"I'm sure if you ask him later to apologise you'll get some kind of compensation," Pence said. "Seifer has a noble and honourable side as well."

"Really?" Amu murmured. "Just by looking at him I find that hard to believe."

Pence and Olette both laughed out aloud at that statement.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Olette giggled. "Well, summer vacation starts tomorrow. What'll we do on our first day of freedom?"

Pence mulled it over before replying, "I think we should meet at the usual spot tomorrow and discuss it with Hayner. You know how he gets when his friends do stuff without him."

Olette nodded. "That seems fair. Hinamori, would you like to come with us?"

Amu smiled and nodded. "Thanks. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise. I don't know how to get home from here at all." She stared over the bench at the Tram Common beyond and sighed. "This place is so unfamiliar to me. It's nothing like my hometown."

"Your hometown?" Olette repeated. "Oh, I see. You're _completely_ lost! Well, no matter. See if you can call your parents first."

"Amu should have done that in the first place," Miki criticised. Amu glared at her and whipped her mobile phone out. She found her parents' numbers on her contacts list and called her mother's first. She was met with this:

"The person you are trying to call is out of range."

"What!?" she exclaimed. She tried her father's number and then her home number. When those failed she tried calling her friends' numbers but they all turned up the same result. "I can't get through to anyone!"

"I see," Olette said with a knowing smile. "In that case, you can stay with me until we figure out how to reach your family."

Pence frowned. "Olette, are you sure that's okay? I mean, you've got-"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Olette insisted. "She can't stay at your place, you've got boys everywhere. And Hayner's place hasn't got any vacancies either, so my house it is!"

"Well, alright," Pence said, leaning over the cash register. "You girls had better get ready; I think that little girl is a customer."

A young girl – probably third grade – in a blue sailor suit uniform skipped up to the counter and gave a toothy smile. "Hello! I'd like one Blizzagun armlet for my big brother and that amber ring for my mum."

"Alright," Olette said, bringing the items from the shelves to the counter. The Blizzagun armlet was a beautiful silver piece of jewellery studded with blue sapphires. The ring was chrome coated on top with amber. "Are you sure you have the munny to pay for this?"

The girl nodded. "I've been saving up really hard for a while."

"Wow, really? I take it your brother's about to go travelling."

"Yep! He's going on the Gummi Ship! I figure he'll need something to protect himself."

"How thoughtful," Olette replied as she took the blue and yellow currency and handed the items to the girl wrapped up. "You have a good evening now, bye!"

The girl ran off with her presents safely tucked into her bag. Amu stared as Pence put the money away in the cash register. The coins were little colourful marbles and the notes looked like monopoly money.

"Hey, I've never seen that currency before," Ran piped up. She turned to her companion charas. "Do you think we're in a different country?"

Miki and Su shrugged.

"Hey guys," they heard Hayner say. They turned around and saw him walking out from the back room with Stella. He had cream on his bruises and an icepack for his cheek and black eye. "Let's go. I'll feel great! Thanks again Stella."

"That's okay. As long as there's someone to mind the shop while I'm gone, I'll always be there to help," Stella said.

"That lady," Miki muttered. "She's only out for her own self-interests."

"WHAT DID THAT FAIRY SAY?!" Stella suddenly shrieked.

"What?!" Amu and the other charas exclaimed. "She can see them as well!"

"After I selflessly fixed up your friend you turn around and say something as ungrateful as that! Get out, fairy!"

Miki flew from the shop to avoid being slapped.

Olette laughed nervously. "Actually, Stella's right. She has nothing to gain from helping Hayner. If anything, being friends with Hayner is actually bad for her image. We should be thanking her."

"That's right!" Stella said. "Now if you don't mind, I have a business to run and you kids should be getting home soon. So run along."

"Okay," Pence said, leading the way through the side door to get outside. "See you later, Stella."

The party of four walked off with a goodbye from Stella and began to walk across Tram Common. Hayner had taken the lead this time and seemed to know exactly where he was going.

"So," he began, "I heard that Hinamori is going to stay with Olette."

Amu gasped. "How'd you hear that?"

"The wall is paper thin; I could hear everything that was being said. I'm fine with that arrangement."

"Well, then, that's good," Amu said with finality. Hayner's impression on her still wasn't too good. "Where are we going anyway?"

"To the Sandlot," Hayner replied. Amu blinked.

"Where's that?"

"It's not too far," Olette replied. "And hopefully, Seifer won't be there. We don't need anymore fighting today." She shot a firm look at Hayner's back. Hayner seemed to feel it.

"Yeah, yeah. I just wanna check something out," Hayner said, leading the group down some steps and under an archway. The Sandlot had a big arena in the middle, surrounded by benches. The walls were covered in posters for events (particularly struggle events) to be held in the area. A garage to one side stored equipment for all sorts of games and sports. The area was empty except for a group of younger boys who were hanging around a large poster which had been put up recently. Hayner calmly strode up to them and – with his struggle bat handy – pushed them aside.

"Hey, we were here first!" yelled one of the boys.

"Like I care! It's not like you're gonna enter," Hayner said coldly.

"I sure am!"

"Pfft! That would be useless, 'cause I'd only wipe the floor with you!"

"Oh yeah? Let's see you try, right here, right now!"

The boy charged at Hayner with his fists raised. Hayner beat him on the head a couple of times with his bat and nudged him back with his foot. "Leave the struggling to the older boys. Go ride your skateboard or something."

"Hayner! Stop this," Olette chided. "You're being a bully again!" Meanwhile, the boys grumbled and walked off feeling sour.

"Hmph!"

Amu glared at him. "I don't like his character," she said quietly to her charas. They shook their heads, agreeing with her.

Pence read the poster and grinned. "It looks like Setzer isn't coming back this year."

"Good riddance," Hayner said.

"Seifer's competing as the champion," Olette said. "But I thought he declined that position."

"The organizers will do whatever they want," Hayner answered, "even if someone says no. But no matter what they do, Seifer will still compete."

"Um, is this an advertisement for that struggle thing you were doing before?" Amu asked.

Pence nodded excitedly. "There's a local tournament being held at the end of the summer. Hayner always competes but he loses in quarterfinals every time."

Hayner pouted. "No need to remind me."

"Seifer competes all the time too," Pence added as an afterthought. "Setzer used to compete and he was the reigning champion of the tournament."

"But they both lost last year," Hayner said. Olette and Pence turned their attention to him. He shouldered his bat and turned away. "It doesn't matter now. Last year's champion isn't here anymore, so Seifer's gonna be the guy to beat."

For a moment, Amu saw a sad emotion flicker through Hayner's face and linger in his eyes. For that moment, she felt just a little sorry for him. The suddenly, he turned back to face his friends with a softer, more caring expression.

"So, summer holidays start tomorrow. What do you want to do?"

Olette and Pence snapped to attention, tearing their eyes away from the poster. "We were thinking of that!"

"Really? Did you come up with any ideas?"

"Um… not really…" Olette admitted. "We wanted to talk it over with you. But I personally think that we should start with the summer report. We should get that out of the way before anything else and then we'll be free for the rest of the holidays!"

"Okay, sounds good," Hayner said. "What about you, Pence?"

"I don't wanna get straight into schoolwork right after coming back from school!" the short boy whined. Olette gave him a pointed look. "But okay… just because it'll be over and done with."

"Then it's decided," Olette announced with a clap of her hands. "Tomorrow, let's all meet at the usual spot and we'll talk about what our report is going to be about. In the meantime, it's getting late so we should all head home for tonight."

"Alright then, you go ahead. I've got a job to do," Hayner said, heading towards a street that was signposted as 'Market Street'.

"Good luck with that," Pence called out. "Let's get back to Tram Common. The last tram going to my suburb leaves in half an hour."

Olette nodded and asked Amu to follow her.

* * *

If you haven't watched Sleeping Beauty or played Kingdom Hearts, I'll just have you know... or maybe I won't because it'll keep you in suspense. However, as you can see, not too much action in this chapter. Hopefully, there'll be more action in future chapters. Until then, enjoy this and please encourage me with reviews. I almost didn't want to upload this for want of reviews and then I prove to myself that I'm not that selfish.


	3. Mission start!

Okay, so again this is very little action, more explaining the Kingdom Hearts worlds. It seems that a lot of chapters may be filled up with this sort of stuff, which is kind of a pity because I really like just getting on with the action. Also, take anything I write with a grain of salt because as much as this is a Shugo Chara fanfic it's also a Kingdom Hearts fanfic and I hold the right to make up some stuff about Kingdom Hearts too.

* * *

Olette and Amu caught the first tram they could find that was going to a place called 'Wakey Lakes'. The tram wasn't too crowded, as most people at the common (students mainly) preferred to stay out as long as they could. Olette and Amu had an entire seat to themselves. They spent most of the trip in silence. Olette had Amu's phone and was trying to see if she could reach Amu's contacts through her own mobile. It didn't work. The sky outside was getting dark and everyone except Amu and Olette had gotten off.

"We get off on the last stop," Olette explained. "Then the tram gets sent into a tunnel to get hooked up to a grid where it'll charge until its next trip tomorrow."

Amu just nodded in understanding. Her charas had decided to rest in their little box. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt for a while, as she tried to gather the courage to ask a burning question. "Olette," she began, "do you ever… feel intimidated by Hayner?"

Olette blinked and stared at her. "Why would I be intimidated?"

"He's such a bully. You must see him act the way he did towards those little kids everyday. How do you cope with hanging around him?"

"What do you mean how do I cope? We're friends! I believe in his good personality and don't let anything change my opinion of him."

Amu sent her a suspicious look. "There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

Olette glanced at Amu, seeing the expression on her face and sighed. She turned away and slung her arm over the back of the seat. "There is… Hayner wasn't always like this. When he was little he didn't have any friends. Even Pence and I didn't want to be his friend back in elementary school. Hayner was always in trouble; he was a real bully back then. He used to burn things, step on stuff, and beat up kids smaller than him – typical bully stuff. One time, he even _spat bubblegum_ into my _hair_."

Amu made a face. "That's disgusting! How could you change your opinion of him if he did that to you?"

"Well, he had a lot of problems. His dad was a nasty person. He was a drug dealer who liked to get shot up himself who was also a wife beater – despite the fact that he and Hayner's mother weren't married. He was alcoholic, a smoker and he even murdered someone."

"How'd a guy like him ever find someone to even get close enough to have a child with?" Amu asked, sick to her stomach by the nature of the person Olette described.

"Hayner's mother was in with his crowd. That is, until she found out she was pregnant. She heard about her family's plans to take her child away when he was born. The Child Protection and Welfare Agency even came around to tell her that they wouldn't allow her to look after her baby. In those nine months, she tried really, really hard. She went to rehab to get off all the drugs and cigarettes, then she started cleaning the house regularly and working for good, clean money, rather than living off the products of drug trafficking. But Hayner's dad didn't like it. He abused her and kept her locked in the house. He made her quit her job and took away all forms of communication in the house that she could use. He threatened her and only allowed her to go outside to do grocery shopping and to go to the hospital to have her baby. She was so scared of him that she didn't say anything. He controlled her every step.

"Also – I don't know if this is completely true, half of it is only a rumour – when Hayner was a three-year-old his dad used him to steal things and pickpocket. When the officials found out they gave Hayner a special detention and did an investigation on his dad. He got life in gaol. From then on, Hayner and his mum could live freely, but all the media publicity on his dad's case gave his mother a bad name as well, because they mentioned all the bad things she used to do. All the courts and offices were convinced she'd changed but it wasn't easy to convince the public. People would give her a hard time and she couldn't move out of the neighbourhood they lived in because she couldn't get a job that earned enough money to buy a new home. But she still tried to raise him properly – she sent him to kindergarten, and then to school and scolded him when he brought home anything like a gun or drugs. But she didn't last either. Hayner was only eight when his mother got sick. Her health was on and off for a year and by the time he was nine it had gotten so bad that she had to be cared for 24/7. So she was moved into the hospital and she's still there, fighting whatever it is that's making her ill. Hayner was then sent to live with his grandmother on the other side of town.

"That's when Hayner really changed. I think it was at that point that he realised how awful he was being and he realised that he didn't have any friends and he began to take his mother's words to heart. He became a bit introverted and lonely and tried to patch things up between himself and other people by doing nice things, but when your past has been displayed on television for all to see – especially the bad parts – it can be really hard, particularly with parents. But Hayner's always tried really hard. He tries really hard to earn respect from everyone and he even got a part-time job since his grandmother is on pension. He isn't judgmental and he gets enthusiastic about everything; he's always ready to give it his all. He's gradually gained some respect from his peers over the years. I admire him for that."

Amu swallowed the knot in her throat and tried not to cry. "S-so, how did you become friends?"

Olette smiled. "It was one of the nice things he did after his moved in with his grandmother. The girls in middle school used to pick on the elementary girls. I had this pretty red ribbon that my dad gave me for my birthday. Those girls stole it one day and threw it into a storm drain. I was so upset. But then the next day, Hayner came up to me in class and gave me a blue ribbon that he bought from Stella's shop. When I put it on he said to me: 'that pretty ribbon increases your cuteness tenfold, definitely'. And then he just walked off." Olette clasped her hands together and put them in her lap. "It's still my favourite memory of him. After that, I thought he was the coolest person in the world."

Olette looked up when Amu didn't say anything for a while. She had her hands pressed to her chest and tears streaming down her face like waterfalls. Olette laughed. "I can't believe you actually cried!"

Amu blinked away the tears. "What do you mean by that? Were you lying to me?" she snapped.

"No, no," Olette replied, waving her hands in front of her as defense. "You've just seemed so obstinate in these past few hours that I didn't expect you to cry so openly."

"You see, even others agree that Amu has an obstinate character," Miki said from the box. Ran and Su were in tears, like Amu. Amu snapped the box lid shut.

"So I guess that's why then," Amu muttered. Olette urged her to elaborate. "I was thinking about something you said earlier about helping Hayner being bad for Stella-san's image. It's because of his bad past, right?"

"You guessed it," Olette answered. She leaned back on the seat and looked at the ceiling. "Stella's one of the few people who know what Hayner's true personality is."

"Really? You mean, the bully side of him is just like an outside character?"

"You could say that."

Even though Olette spent a brief time looking at the ceiling, neither of the girls saw a grey face sticking through the ceiling at one end of the tram. The face melted into the ceiling and rejoined its body on the other side. The creature standing on the roof of the tram was white with long, thin legs and thin, wing-like arms. It was bent over and seemed to walk on the tips of its toes. In a flash of white it simply disappeared.

It reappeared in an old, dirty room beside a table that had been broken in two places. There were two cushy armchairs on either side of the table, but the person in the room preferred to lean again the wall. He was tall and thin, wearing a black, hooded coat. The white creature locked eyes with the tall man and they conversed telepathically; the creature spilt all the information it had just obtained directly into its master's mind.

"Good work," the hooded man said once his creature had finished transferring the information. "Now get lost."

In another flash of white, the creature was gone again. The hooded man chuckled. "I see… in the end, I'll be the judge of Hayner's true personality."

* * *

"Here we are," Olette announced, showing Amu to a house that was taller than it was wide. It was built in another backstreet-like street but this one only had houses. Olette's house was the largest in the area.

"Wow, it's bigger than everyone else's…"

"I know," Olette said. "But it sort of has to be. Almost my entire family is living in my house."

"Exactly what do you mean by that?" Amu asked as the charas floated out of their box to see Olette's house.

Before Olette could begin her explanation, the door burst open and two little brunet boys with green eyes jumped out still wearing their school uniforms and screaming: "Big sister!"

Olette caught them in a hug. "Oh, my little brothers, Cobalt and Coltrane."

"They're twins," Miki observed.

"They're very cute ~desu."

The twin boys looked up, seeing the three guardian charas. Their faces lit up. "Olette brought some fairies home! Yay!"

"Hey, we're not really fairies," Ran tried to explain as she floated out of their reach to hide behind Amu.

"Knock it off!" yelled an older woman who stepped into the doorway. She had auburn hair and green eyes and was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue sweater. "Go and do your homework, leave the fairies alone."

The boys pouted and gave the woman a shiny-eyed look.

"Now!"

"Okay, mommy," the boys murmured, dragging themselves back into the house. Once they'd gone inside the woman rounded on Olette.

"Why are you home so late? Where did you go with Hayner?"

"Mom!" Olette exclaimed. "I don't just hang out with Hayner, Pence is always there too! And Hayner's not a bully anymore."

"Honey, I'm just looking out for your well-being," her mother tried to reason. "Now what's this young girl doing here?"

Amu almost jumped back when she realised that the woman was talking about her.

"This is Hinamori," Olette replied. "She's a new friend of ours and she's a bit lost, but we can't contact her family or friends for some reason. It's alright for her to stay in our house while we try to figure out where she comes from, right?"

"Oh, Olette!" her mother moaned. "We've already got-"

"Colette! What are you doing out there!" yelled an old woman's voice. Olette's mother grit her teeth and balled her hands into fists.

"Mama Maddison, please mind your own business."

Another woman in a yellow dress – who appeared younger than the voice that had just spoken – appeared in the hall beyond the door. She looked exactly like Colette. "Sissy, don't tell me you're about to send Olette's little friend home."

"Sissy!" Colette snapped. "We cannot have any more people staying here, not now that 'Mama Maddison' is in the house."

"Don't be so cruel. Olette brought her all this way, at least let her stay tonight," the other woman said, approaching the door and shoving her sister aside. "Good evening, I'm Odette. And you are?"

"Hinamori Amu," Amu replied, looking away completely. Her charas floated around her head and giggled.

"Obstinate!" they chimed.

"Oh wow, what cute fairies," Odette said.

Colette narrowed her eyes. "Fairies aren't supposed to exist."

"Oh sissy, weirder things have turned up in this town."

"Fine! I'm not going to take care of anything when the kids see them and go nuts."

Colette turned on her heel and started barking at several people somewhere in the house about staying away from the cookies before dinner. Odette sighed and turned back to Olette and Amu. By this point, Amu was already used to unexpected people noticing her charas.

"Don't worry about sissy," Odette said. "She just has a bit of a sour personality. They always used to say we were the sweet and sour pair when we were little. But that's not relevant; Hinamori Amu needs a place to stay for tonight at least, doesn't she? Well, we don't have any more room upstairs to host one more person. I'll get Darren to put the fold up bed and spare mattress in Olette's room instead. Honey! We have another housemate!" she called out to her partner, turning around and disappearing to go and find him.

Amu glanced at Olette. Olette glanced back at her.

"As you can see, there are many people in my house," Olette replied.

"How come?"

Olette scratched the tip of her nose while she thought about the order of events and then replied: "Well, my mother and my aunt Odette are identical twins and while growing up they were never separated. When they moved out they bought this house – and this was back when there was a bit more land and the street wasn't as crowded as it is now – and they lived here together. Then when they got married, neither of them wanted to move out and be separated for the first time so they got their husbands to move in with them. Then I was born, and then my cousins Travis and Davis were born. Then my little brothers were born, and then my cousin Anita was born. Uncle Rayne then suddenly had some financial trouble and had to sell his house and move in with us, bringing his wife and his daughter and they still haven't moved out. Then Aunty Martha's gambling problems led her to financial woes as well and she had to move in. My second cousins Peter, Josie and Rose on my mother's side and Harrison and Gerry on my dad's side are all at university at Dawnside University, which is really close to our house so instead of paying rent and living in a home or college, they're living with us until they finish university. And then there's the housemaid and her baby boy Stephen. She had some relationship problems with her husband and when they got divorced her husband retained ownership of the house and kicked her out, so we got our basement fixed up to make it suitable for her to live in. After that Aunty Martha went to a party, got drunk and then ended up having someone's baby – my cousin Jesse. She was really shocked by that, so she started trying to find committed relationships and she's now engaged to a guy called Hamish who has two kids: Ashleigh and Francis and due to a recent interest rate rise and a rise in the price of land and housing they haven't been able to find a house that they can afford, so they're living here with us. With so many children in the house we had to hire a nanny and she turned up on our doorstep to sell nail polish and earn enough to at least rent a room. She was good enough as far as nannies go so we hired her and she now lives in a room in our house in exchange for looking after all the kids. Then a third cousin that we didn't know we had until Josie introduced him to us was released from gaol – his name is Bleu – and he only had ten munny so he and his girlfriend Blair from gaol also moved in and you know, you'd be surprised how much they've turned over a new leaf. They were rehabilitated in gaol to stop the cocaine addiction and they haven't attempted armed robbery again since coming to stay with us. And most recently, my mother's mother-in-law got evicted and we were the only family who was nice enough to give her a place to stay. The rest of the in-laws are totally unbearable."

Amu gaped at Olette. She stayed in that position so long that Olette began to think that the wind had changed. Su worriedly poked Amu in the cheek but her owner didn't respond. Miki shrugged.

"She's probably just shocked," said the blue chara. "Who knew you could fit so many people in one house."

"It takes meticulous organisation but we've pulled it off without too many problems so far… except with grandma-in-law, Mama Maddison." Olette finally sighed and invited Amu in. They took their shoes off at the door and Olette showed her a shelf where she could put her shoes. "Anyway, you'll be staying with me in my room."

"Really? Where's your room?" Amu asked. "I saw at least three storeys."

"There are actually four, but my room doesn't really count as a storey."

"Why not?"

"My room is the attic."

* * *

Olette pushed the trapdoor open and crawled into her room. Amu followed and saw the large room that was the attic. The room was cleaner than she'd expected. The neater side was by the windows. There was a little table and a desk with a computer on it next to a bed. At the end of the bed another, shorter bed had been set up for a guest. There was a wardrobe and a trunk against the right wall and by one of the two windows was a strange lamp that looked like a green globe with glowing sparrows travelling around it. On the other side were several old and forgotten objects. Many were in boxes that were covered with old blankets. There was a bit of dust surrounding the objects that weren't covered, such as an old, antique full length mirror, some kitsch lamps, porcelain dolls and an old armchair that had a large vase with numerous fake flowers sitting on it.

"Wow, there's heaps of stuff up here," Amu said, climbing into the room. Olette closed the trapdoor behind her. "I mean, for an attic it makes a pretty nice room."

"Even so, the ceiling is a little low," Olette said. "And nobody wants to get rid of their curtains and send them up here, so I have none."

"But even without curtains, it's nice," Ran said, floating over to the strange lamp.

"It's a bit plain," Miki commented. "And the old, musty stuff does nothing to make it seem liveable."

"Miki, don't be so critical," Ran snapped. "It's still a cool room."

"Well at least someone thinks so," Olette said, moving over to chest of drawers covered by cloth. She moved the cloth aside and opened the top drawers, pulling out some pyjamas and an outfit. "These clothes are a little musty, but they're my old clothes. They should fit you. I'll just wash them for you."

Amu smiled. "Thank-you."

Olette nodded and opened her trapdoor, disappearing beneath it and closing it behind her. Amu went to sit on the fold out bed. It was a bit saggy but not too bad.

"Amu's been so lucky ~desu," Su said. "Olette-san has been so nice."

"Everyone was really nice," Ran agreed. "It would have been terrible if Olette hadn't offered to let us stay with her. Imagine having to sleep on the streets, or in an alley."

"And then waking up stinky with bad hair and bad clothes," Miki added.

A sweat drop formed on Amu's forehead. "Guys, thanks for the worst-case scenario. That really cheers me up. I don't know if they'll let me stay another night after this. Remember what her mother said? And there are so many people living here already, I'm just another mouth to feed. I can't burden them like that."

"It must be hard having so many people in your family live with you ~desu," Su said. "But there's always a bright side. Tomorrow Olette and her friends are going to take us with them when they research their summer report ~desu."

"Joy…" Amu and Miki murmured.

"You never know!" Ran said, "They could have a fun report planned out. Or they may not have a plan at all and we can all go and get ice-cream while we think of fun things to do for a summer report. Woo-hoo!"

"Please be realistic, Ran," Miki said. "What can be so much fun about summer homework?"

"You have to make it fun yourself," Ran said.

Amu sighed and let her charas argue about homework. Su was hovering around Olette's desk looking at the alarm clock in the shape of a large, yellow bird. The computer keyboard was slightly different to the conventional type she was used to seeing at Amu's house and school and the screen had its own headlamp. Overlayed on top of the screen was a transparent touch screen that could be pulled out and used in isolation. Next to the computer were a calendar notepad and some nail polish that Olette had forgotten to put away. An album sat on the side of the desk closest to the bed and on top of that was a framed photo of four people. There was Olette and Pence kneeling at the front while Hayner stood at the back next to a boy with spiky blond hair.

"Amu!" Su exclaimed, pointing at the photo excitedly. "Look, look! Doesn't this person look familiar ~desu?"

Amu turned to see what Su was excited about. Ran and Miki even stopped their bickering. Amu gasped and grabbed the photo. "Su! That boy is Roxas-kun! How does Olette know Roxas-kun?"

"Who knows," Miki said.

"But he looks happy ~desu," Su said. "And so does Hayner."

"Yeah, he does," Amu realised. Hayner had a huge grin right next to Roxas' smiling face. "Do you think Hayner and Roxas… maybe Roxas lived here before moving to our town. Do you think maybe they were both upset about the move?"

"It's possible," Miki replied.

"It's sad!" Ran said. "I don't ever want our friends to move away like that! Like when Nadeshiko and Temari moved away. But at least they're going to come back."

"I'm back," Olette suddenly announced. Amu was startled by her sudden appearance and almost dropped the photo. "I see you've noticed my photo collection."

"Not really," Su said. "We were only looking at the photo of Roxas ~desu."

"Oh? Do you know Roxas?" Olette asked, climbing into the attic and moving over to sit on the bed next to Amu.

"Yeah," Amu answered. "He moved to our town recently and transferred into my friend's middle school."

The look Olette was giving her told Amu that that was a little bit odd. "Really? Middle school? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter to Roxas. Nothing really matters to him. He seems to live his life as though it's not worth it."

"But he's smiling in this photo," Amu said.

"I know. He was different back then – a year ago. Actually, Roxas was the legendary champion of the struggle tournament last year who could beat both Seifer and the old champion Setzer. But since he's gone, the struggle officials decided to name Seifer the champion instead. He was the only one who they thought measured up to Roxas, even more than Setzer."

"W-was Roxas really that good?" Amu exclaimed. The charas listened in awe of the praise of Roxas.

"Yeah, no one knew how. He just came out of nowhere and beat everybody," Olette said. She suddenly stood up. "But, I shouldn't tattle on about the past too much. Roxas left and he told us there wasn't a chance of him coming back to see us. He and Hayner were best friends and I think… I think when Hayner heard that, he died just that little bit more inside."

"Wow, Hayner sure has it tough," Ran muttered.

Olette looked out of one of her two windows at the peaked rooves across from her own and suddenly shook her head. "Hey, it's dinnertime now and mum cooked a really great casserole with macaroni and salmon. I wanna get my share before everyone else eats it all!" Olette grabbed Amu by the wrist and practically dragged her down the ladder beneath the trapdoor.

* * *

The next day Olette and Amu left with a casual goodbye to Olette's family and got on the tram to Tram Common. Olette wore a yellow knee-length sun dress with flowers on the straps and white sandals. Amu had a set of Olette's old clothes. They were a little bit big on her and the colours didn't really suit her. She had on an orange, sleeveless shirt with yellow flowers in one corner and a red and black chequered skirt. She had fresh white socks but still wore her school shoes.

When they made it to Tram Common, Olette led the way up to Station Heights and then into a back alley. For a back alley it was quite clean – cleaner than the ones in Japan at least. Towards the end where it branched onto another backstreet there was an iron fence and gate with a busted lock. It was easy to miss thanks to the tattered blankets hung behind it that matched the pale bricks surrounding it. The sounds of trains coming and going could be heard coming from behind it.

"Are we going in there?" Amu asked.

"Of course we are," Olette replied. "This is the usual spot."

Olette opened the gate and left it slightly ajar and pushed back an opening in the blankets. Hayner and Pence were already there sharing jokes. Hayner was wearing a red shirt with a graffiti design drawn on it. He had black pants held up with a belt that had a silver buckle and red skate shoes with actual skates tucked between the raised soles on the heel and ball. Pence wore a blue shirt with khaki jeans and plain sneakers.

The usual spot was a bit cluttered but had a friendly atmosphere. There was a dartboard and an out-of-date struggle poster as well as a map of the town (which Amu now knew was called Twilight Town). There was a pipe passing through at the back and feeding into a green box that Hayner sat on. Pence sat on an old, rusty chair with broken leather upholstery which was placed next to a small, old couch. Hayner and Pence noticed Olette and Amu walk in.

"So, any ideas?" Hayner asked, reaching into his backpack for a cool box full of ice. He took four ice-creams out of it and shared them around. Olette took two of them and passed one to Amu.

"Well," Olette started, "Why don't we do something that involves field research, like last year."

"You mean when we did the 'Seven Wonders of Twilight Town'?" Hayner said with a sceptical eyebrow rising.

"Yeah, but maybe something more practical," Olette said. "Like, we could do a comparative essay on two of the books we read in class, or do a scientific experiment and just write up the results."

Amu unwrapped her ice-cream. Ran took the first lick and suddenly jerked.

"Doing a repeat of last year's field trip sounds pretty good now," Hayner said, cringing at the other options. Olette pouted with her lips around her ice-cream. After seeing Ran's reaction Amu was a bit wary of tasting it, but soon enough Ran and pulled her special ice-cream eating spoon out of nowhere and helped herself to another scoop.

"Hey Amu, this ice-cream is really yummy! Try it," she urged. Miki, Su and Amu looked at her. Amu licked the ice-cream and jerked in surprise. The flavour was unique and so different to anything she'd eaten before.

"It's salty… but it's sweet at the same time," she observed.

"It's called sea-salt ice-cream," Olette explained. "It's really addictive and it doesn't melt as much as the other flavours for some reason."

"How could that be?" Su said. "Putting salt in the ice-cream would make it melt faster, wouldn't it?"

"We don't know how it's made, we just eat it," Hayner added, taking a bite off the top of his ice-cream.

"And it's the most popular flavour in Twilight Town," Pence said. "If the ice-cream parlour only sells one flavour, it'll sell sea-salt ice-cream."

"That's kind of weird," Amu said, licking at her ice-cream. It did taste really good.

"Anyway, we're getting off topic," Olette reminded them.

"Oh, right, school report," Hayner said. "What're we gonna do."

"Well, you said doing the same sort of thing that we did last year would be kind of fun," Pence said. "And we never got around to really examining that old mansion."

"Last year we did our report on the 'Seven Wonders of Twilight Town'," Olette explained to Amu. "There were seven mysteries around Sunset Hill and other places in Twilight Town and we set out to figure out what they really were. Although, I thought we did figure out that the ghost in the mansion was just a curtain in the breeze." Amu froze at the word 'ghost'.

"Yeah," Hayner realised. "We should do something different."

"But there's been new paranormal activities going on in the mansion recently," Pence said excitedly, sucking the last of his ice-cream of the stick. "Apparently the windows are cleaner and someone pulled some of the weeds out of the garden in the front yard."

"Are you serious?" Olette gasped. "But no one could possibly be living there. No one's lived there for years! Why would someone want to suddenly move in and clean the windows and weed the garden?"

"You never know," Hayner said, getting up and slinging his pack over his shoulder. "We ourselves didn't really _look_ when it came to the mansion. And remember we found the computer later on."

"And that's not all," Pence added. "Strange white creatures have been seen lurking about all over the town and people have reportedly seen them travelling towards the mansion."

Amu turned pale, her ice-cream melting all over her hand. Miki tried to snap her out of it while Ran tried to save the ice-cream. Su was listening very intently.

"Tell us more ~desu!" she said.

"I only know one more thing," Pence said. "They say that a man in a black is sometimes seen wandering around in the woods near the mansion, but he never goes in or leaves… at least not while someone's looking."

Amu was visibly shaking by then. "U-u-um… y-you know, I'm not all that g-good with g-g-ghosts and st-stuff."

"Oh relax," Hayner scolded. "We're going there to prove that it's not a ghost! Let's beat it."

"Alright! Haunted mansion, here we come!" Olette sang. "Let's go, Hinamori." She grabbed Amu by the arm and dragged her along, despite Amu's heels digging into the concrete.

* * *

"They're coming after you," said a short boy in a black hooded cloak. Silver hair peaked out from under one side of his hood and he held a large, black-covered tome close to his chest.

"I know that," said a much taller, much thinner man in a black cloak. "That's what I wanted. Hayner and his little buddies are right where I want them now."

"What about the girl? She used the card as you directed her to and now you have her trapped here. What are you going to do with her?"

The tall man lowered his hood, revealing the bright red spikes that distinguished Axel. "I think you have the brain power to figure that out on your own."

"No matter what scenario I can think of, it won't end in your favour."

"Tsk, tsk, Zexion. Without knowledge of my intentions how can you claim what's in my favour and what's not?"

The shorter one was silent for a moment and then said: "So you plan to lose?"

"Precisely."

"Then there's no use bidding you good luck, the outcomes are in your favour. There is no way your intentions will be left unfulfilled."

Axel laughed. "Funny, Zex, funny. I don't know why I killed you the first time 'round."

Zexion shrugged. "No hard feelings… after all, we don't have any." And with that last word, Zexion disappeared in a cloud of wispy, dark smoke.

* * *

There was a hole in the far wall at Tram Common. It was such a large hole, Amu had no idea why people walked past and didn't even spare it a glance. Olette, Pence, Hayner and Amu slipped in easily. Beyond the wall were dark woods with a thick canopy. In the ground there were areas that were slightly more worn than others. The trio took off ahead of Amu, leaving her to follow along one of those worn tracks, but they all led to the same place: a large, old mansion. The rusty, black gates were wide open. Obelisks which had once been tall and proud were now chipped, dirty and broken. They lined the path to the front door like a boulevard. There were customary wild vines and overgrown garden, but – as Pence has said – there was an evident lack of weeds anywhere.

"Wow, Pence, you were right," Olette said, looking up at the building. "The windows are clean."

"Alright, let's take a look inside," Hayner commanded, shoving Amu towards the door as Pence and Olette pushed it open. They pushed it shut behind them with a loud bang.

Inside the mansion was extremely dirty, except for the glass doors on the other side of the room leading to a yard with a rearing horse in the centre of a fountain. A piece of art that had been bought and forgotten about in its now smashed case was placed in the middle of the foyer and staircases led up to a balcony lined with paintings and suits of armour.

"This place is really dirty," Olette muttered, holding her nose against the strong musty smells of rotting wood, damp carpet and dust.

"But the glass is really clean," Hayner said, taking out a notepad and jotting down a few things. "This is really weird. Someone must be living here."

Amu thought she could hear her knees knocking together. "Um… if someone's living here then we should probably respect their privacy and, like… leave."

"Don't be a coward! I doubt there's anything to fear around here anymore."

Miki, Su and Ran gulped. "Anymore…?" they repeated.

"What if it came back?" Miki asked.

Olette, Hayner and Pence exchanged nervous glances.

"I hope it didn't," Pence said.

"There's only one sure-fire way to find out," Hayner announced, placing his pencil in the binding rings of his notepad. "We'll split up. I'll look around downstairs; Pence will look around the White Room while Olette and Hinamori will search the library."

Amu blinked. "The White Room?"

"Come on, Hinamori," Olette said, heading toward the set of stairs on the right. Pence headed for the set of stairs on the left. Hayner stayed downstairs and began to walk towards a door to the left, as the other doors were mysteriously barred by piles of junk that were deliberately placed there.


	4. Deadly Mansion

Here be the action I promised in the previous chapter. Enjoy the awesomeness that is the crossing of Sora and Amu.

* * *

The Library was a dry room with a large, clean window on one side. The rest of the room was practically tiled with old, dusty books. In the middle of the room were a round table and a chair. On the table there was a yellow crayon and a strange drawing of three intricately connected circles. In one circle was a picture of a heart, in another, a strange symbol that looked like an upside down heart with three arms branching out at the top. In the third circle was a crown with part of it erased. Olette blinked upon seeing this. Amu and the charas were gazing at the books and the bust of a Pegasus with a unicorn's horn.

"Why's it staring at the floor?" Miki wondered.

"Um… I swear it wasn't like this before," Olette muttered, staring at the drawing on the table. Amu turned around.

"Like what?"

"There was another stairway in here."

Amu and her charas made their way over to the table and joined Olette in staring at the picture. "It's not here now."

"But it was here!" Olette insisted. "And this floor and table weren't."

Question marks flew through Amu, Su and Ran's heads. Miki had picked up the yellow crayon and completed the drawing of the crown.

"I just can't leave a drawing unfinished like this," she explained.

All of a sudden the floor and everything on it glowed white. Wisps of white smoke and sparkles floated upwards as the solid floor beneath them disintegrated and they tumbled through the whiteness, screaming. They landed on something hard and cold. Amu groaned as her hips and thighs ached and throbbed. She opened her eyes, not realising she had closed them and saw that there was another staircase leading down from the thin walkway that was left of the library floor. The room beneath it was made of metal and had the air of a technological space.

"What the…" Amu murmured.

"This is it!" Olette exclaimed. She ran towards a sliding door and it automatically opened for her. "This way, Hinamori! We need to check the computer."

Amu and her charas were deeply confused but followed her anyway, for fear of what might happen if they were left behind. In the next room it was slightly darker but with working computer technology placed around the room. On the right side of the room was a strange machine with a beam of light shooting out of a panel on the ceiling to an identical panel on the floor. Olette sat down in front of the computer. There were so many screens, keyboards and so much information it was hard to look at all of it. On another set of screens on the wall behind Olette was a lot of personal and statistical information on a teenaged boy named 'Sora'.

"He looks a little familiar ~desu," Su said in regards to this 'Sora'.

"Yeah, I feel like I've seen him before," Ran said, staring at the picture.

Amu looked over Olette's shoulder, with Miki sitting on her head, still a little shaken from what she had just caused in the library. "What's a large computer like this doing down here?"

"I don't know, but our gang discovered it down here last year shortly after Roxas left," Olette replied. "We figured out the password, but other than that, we're not particularly sure what it does."

"Doesn't it make this machine work?" Ran asked, pointing to the strange machine with the beam of light.

"I think so, but I've never tried it."

"Then how do you know what you're looking for?" Amu asked suspiciously, suddenly getting the feeling – not that Olette was lying – that the truth was being stretched.

"I don't really…"

"_Access denied."_ The computer beeped.

"Well, now I know that the password's been changed," Olette said. "That means someone's been tinkering with this thing. Let's see if I can crack it."

Amu and the charas watched the screen in front of them while Olette tried as many different password combinations as she could.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hayner had wandered into what had once been a dining room. There were two, old and dusty chairs on either side of a broken table. Two suits of armour stood on guard by the door and a cabinet full of old, dusty china, but clean glass.

"How come all the glass is clean but everything else is just the way it's always been?" Hayner wondered.

"What can I say? She's very partial to glass."

Hayner whipped around and found a tall man with wild, red hair grinning at him.

"Name's Axel; got it memorised?"

"Whatever," Hayner frowned, glaring at him. "What're you doing here? You're that man in black people keep taking about, aren't you?"

"Maybe," Axel teased.

"What do you want with this town?" Hayner balled his fists.

"Ooh, we're in the fighting mood, are we? Wouldn't you like to know what I'm up to."

"If you harm anyone, especially my friends… I swear…"

Axel laughed. "Empty threats are all I hear, and you didn't even make your threats! Come on! If you're serious you have to at least try."

"You wouldn't wanna hear about what I'll do to you."

Axel smirked. "Try me!"

"You're dead!" Hayner screamed, lunging at him and throwing a well aimed punch into the soft tissue of Axel's gut. Axel doubled over easily and coughed.

"Is that it? I've met little girls who hit harder than you!" Axel pushed him to the floor and stamped on his chest, applying pressure to restrict Hayner's breathing. "I never said I was going to _do_ anything to the town, but that little outburst might have changed my mind."

Hayner narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare…"

"Don't start with the unfinished threats. But you know, I sort of like your energy and determination. How about we strike a deal?"

Hayner pursed his lips and stayed silent. Axel took that as a cue to continue.

"Well, I have a few little research tasks that need to be completed. It's a long, tiring process, even for me," Axel explained, feigning exhaustion. "So I need a helper. I want someone who'll be under my absolute command, otherwise this ain't gonna work. In exchange, I won't harm anyone or anything in this town. Take a step out of line… and _you_ won't wanna know what I'm gonna do to everything and everyone you know and love."

"Th… That's low," Hayner wheezed.

"Maybe, but that's life too, got it memorised? Believe me, there are people who stoop lower than I ever will."

"What do you want?" Hayner huffed.

Axel's smirk widened. "See you at the top of Sunset Hill near the clock tower – eight pm sharp. Got it memorised?"

* * *

Amu examined Sora's personal information while Olette was busy trying to work out the password. All of a sudden another door to her right slid open. Amu squeaked at the sudden noise.

"Um… Olette… Have you done anything yet?"

"No, I don't think I'm any closer to cracking the code," came the reply. "The hint says: 'Kairi' but I have no idea what that means."

"Oh."

Amu turned back to the door. It wasn't very dark on the other side but there was an invisible foreboding mist seeping out. Amu shivered and turned her back to it, trying to ignore it.

"Amu, why don't we just go inside?" Ran suggested. "Olette's pretty busy here so we should at least try to be helpful and see if we can find any more clues for the project."

"I-I don't really want to…" Amu hesitated.

"Come on Amu," Su encouraged. "It's only to be helpful ~desu. If you get scared we can come back."

"I-I-I'm not sc-scared!" Amu exclaimed.

"Hm?" Olette muttered, still preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"Nothing! Nothing!"

"Alright then, we'll just go on ahead," Ran said, taking off into the next room with Su in tow.

"Those two…" Miki muttered.

"Hey! Don't run off! What if I need you?" Amu cried, dashing off to follow her charas, leaving Olette still engrossed in the computer.

The next room was plain and bare. Amu couldn't see what was so special about this room. She snapped at Ran and Su for running off and turned around to go back to the computer room. But the door was shut. She squealed and tried to pry it open with her hands to no avail and there were no tools that she could use.

"Oh, no! What do I do now?"

"Calm down, Amu," Ran said, "Let's just go that way." She pointed to another door in the far right corner of the room. It was lying open and inviting but it was dark.

"There could be a master key or something in there," Miki reasoned. "It's worth checking out."

Amu gulped, trying to ignore her knees knocking. "O-okay."

Amu steadily tiptoed towards the door. It led into a narrow corridor that turned off to the right. The only lights were the glowing green path lights on the floor. In the corner there was a gap in the wall where a conveyor belt of white pods spilled out. They were all empty. Amu couldn't help hugging herself to try to keep away the creepy chill the pods invoked. At the end of the corridor was another open door and the room on the other side was so bright with a white light glowing through the doorway. Amu tentatively stepped into the room and shielded her eyes from the sudden brightness. When she could finally take her eyes away she saw that the room was a large, white dome. Like the first room that branched from the computer room, the room was bare, except for a lone white pod similar to the ones found in the corridor, only this one was twice as large. Amu dared to step closer to the pod. At about three feet away, the pod suddenly hissed and let out jets of cold steam that made Amu and her charas jump. The pod broke into quarters that unfolded like flower petals and in the middle of them, hovering within the casing range of the pod, was an egg.

"Amu, doesn't this look like a Heart's Egg?" Su asked.

The egg did indeed look like a Heart's Egg. It was silver and white with black lines and curves that reminded Amu of sharp kanji strokes. Amu stepped onto the pod's petals and joined Su in the middle of the pod. The egg hovered just out of reach.

"Whose Heart's Egg could this be?" Ran wondered. "I don't see anyone around."

"That's so mysterious (~desu)," Miki and Su added.

Ran turned away from the egg to look at Amu. Amu's facial patterns showed confusion and determination for that egg. Ran wondered if Amu was thinking hard about how she might get that egg down and guide it to its owner. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Ran saw something white flash. She looked over Amu's shoulder and squealed.

"What's up now?" Miki asked.

"Amu! Look!" Ran pointed behind her owner.

Amu spun around fast. Behind her was a white creature that sort of resembled a human. It had feet and hands but no fingers or toes and its head was shaped more like a frog's with a zipper on the mouth. Several more like that one suddenly appeared out of thin air and surrounded her. Amu paled.

"Ghosts!" she screamed.

"Ghosts!" her charas echoed, equally scared by the white monsters.

The zippers on their mouths unzipped themselves as if by some magic force. Their mouths fell open with vicious hisses. They began to walk forward with a strange pelvic twist. They didn't lift their feet and held their arms out to keep balance.

"What do I do?" Amu squeaked. "Do I character transform?"

"But what power do we have to fight them?" Miki said. "What if they're like the Heartless and aren't affected by Negative Heart?"

Amu's eyes began to tear. _"How can it end like this…?"_

Su was hugging the floating Heart's Egg in her fear, when it suddenly began to descend. It stopped right in front of Amu and began to crack. Su let go and gave it some space. The two pieces of eggshell split and disappeared, leaving a guardian chara floating before Amu. The chara wore the same outfit Roxas wore as the 'Red Hero' (as Amu now dubbed him) only it was silver and decorated with those black strokes in compliance with the design on the egg. It had bright blue eyes and spiky brown hair and looked _exactly_ like Sora from the computer stats. He yawned.

"That was a nice nap," he muttered. Amu and her charas stared at him incredulously and failed to notice that the white monsters had stopped advancing and were hopping from side-to-side warily.

"Who are you?" Ran asked.

"Who me?" the new chara replied. "I'm Sora, of course. What seems to be the problem? I promise to do whatever I can to help."

"He sounds so nice ~desu," Su said happily.

"These white monsters," Amu blurted out. "And these black ones called Heartless. I don't know what you can do to help me, but last time I fought them I couldn't restore them to normal – or defeat them at all for that matter. If you have any power that can be of help…"

Sora nodded. "So you need the power to defeat the Heartless and the Nobodies, right?"

"Nobodies…?"

"I need to find my real owner. Could _you_ help _me_?"

"I… I don't know…" Amu muttered, her face falling.

"Of course we can!" Ran exclaimed, surprising Amu, Su and Miki with her claim. "We had a magical card that brought us here to you. If there's a magic card that can bring us to you, then there must certainly be a card that will take us all to your owner, right everyone?"

"That's incredibly optimistic and idealistic," Miki and Amu both replied.

"Really? I think it makes sense," Sora said. A Nobody from the bunch overcame its nervousness and leaped for Amu. "Okay then. Let's character change until you meet your full potential!"

"What?!" Amu shrieked, as all of a sudden she was enveloped in a bright, silver light. A shockwave erupted from the light, knocking all Nobodies back. The three charas did their best to brace against it. Amu reappeared in a new outfit. She wore light brown knee-high lace-ups and elbow length fingerless gloves of the same colour. She had a pair of black mini-shorts and a silver sleeveless jacket with the sharp, black strokes on the back and a silver crop top with those same markings. On her hips was a brown belt with two holsters on both sides carrying guns with apparently very long barrels. Her hair had one half-ponytail on the side of her head but had no decoration similar to the heart, spade or clover provided by her usual charas. "Character transformation: Final Form level 1!"

Amu froze immediately afterwards.

"_Final Form level 1_!? Where did that come from?"

"Calm down," Sora said from inside the Humpty Lock. "Even in this state we can beat these Nobodies."

"What do you mean by 'even in this state'?"

The white creatures – known now as 'Nobodies' – recovered fairly quickly. They each did a back flip and then began to wriggle on their sides like worms, suspended above the floor. They gained altitude with every wriggle.

"Draw your weapons!" Sora commanded.

Amu blinked in a panic and looked all over herself for her weapons. She grabbed the guns in the holsters and pulled them out only to find that even though they had the handles of guns, they had the blades of swords in place of a barrel. Still, Amu pointed each gun at a different enemy and pulled the trigger. They worked like semi-automatics and with each shot the blade glowed and what came out was a bullet of pure, hot, white energy. The two enemies she'd shot at were defeated after several shots and disintegrated. The others had already made their quick advance and were right on top of her. They did somersaults in the air and dove at her, waving their fingerless hands like knives. Amu jumped through the opening between them and shot a barrage of white bullets down at them. Three more were mowed down, leaving two more to deal with. They landed gracefully on the petals of the pod. Amu dropped down and slashed at one of them with her two blades, then leaped over the other with a fancy back flip and slashed down at that one too. They both disintegrated, leaving Amu as the victor of the battle. Her charas cheered and came down from the high place they'd chosen to hover in for their own safety.

"Wow," Amu huffed as the new character change dissolved and Sora reappeared beside her. "That was… awesome! I never knew my body could move like that in a fight. It was like… like I was born to fight! Hi-ya!" Amu punched the air.

Sora smiled and hovered in front of Amu. "That's normally how you feel when you character transform, isn't it? But remember this isn't your real power, right?"

Amu looked at him. "It's not?"

"Those three are your own charas. They're your would-be selves and when you transform with them, they represent your own potential. I represent someone else's potential, so it's not your own power. But it's enough, isn't it, just to beat the enemies you can't purify."

Amu nodded. "That's true. Thanks."

The sound of running footsteps was approaching fast. Amu turned around and saw Olette running towards them, panting. She stopped before the open pod and leaned on her knees, getting a moment to catch her breath.

"Hinamori, this is where you were," she sighed when she got her breath back and straightened up. "When I realised you were missing I ran all the way back to the foyer to look for you. Then I came back here and noticed the other door. Are you alright?"

"Um… sure," Amu replied. "Is there something dangerous here?"

Olette blinked. "Oh… not dangerous as in 'something that will jump out of a closet and eat you', it's more like 'you'll hurt yourself if you don't notice it and it falls on you'. I wouldn't want you to get hurt here."

"So Olette hasn't seen the monsters ~desu," Su asked. Ran and Miki clapped their hands over her mouth.

Olette stared at the green chara. "What monsters?"

"We saw strange white monsters," Sora piped up. He'd been hidden behind Amu's head since Olette turned up and he finally revealed himself. "Do you know the sort?"

Olette's eyes brightened. "Wow, Hinamori! You found _another_ fairy. You're going to be so lucky! Or just have lots of wishes… either way, wow!"

"Um… yeah," Amu muttered. "So, how'd you go with the password?"

"The computer locked me out. I tried to find a way to make it let me back in, but it just ended up shutting down." Olette sighed. "This isn't turning out to be a successful investigation."

"Don't give up yet," Ran encouraged, pulling out her pom-poms and shaking them a bit. "If at first you don't succeed, try and try and try again and again until you do! That's what I always say."

"You _always_ say that?" Miki said sceptically.

"That's beside the point. Let's go back to the foyer and see if Pence and Hayner found anything."

Olette and Amu agreed to that. They retraced their steps back to the library and took the discovered stairs on their way. Olette paused before the door when she heard a shout outside and the sound of something breaking. The pair exchanged glances before Olette finally grabbed the knob and turned it. There was nothing behind the door, so Amu and Olette walked out and stood at the top of the stairs. From there they could see Hayner and Pence cornered at the front door by a large group of Nobodies. The artwork in the centre of the room had toppled off its stand and lay in two pieces amongst the broken glass of its case. Olette gasped and ran down the stairs.

"Pence! Hayner!"

"Olette!" Amu exclaimed, rushing after her but she was stopped when two more Nobodies appeared from above and dropped down in front of her.

The Nobodies jumped at Olette. She nimbly dodged them by crouching low and rolling under them. She joined Hayner and Pence, giving them both hugs. "Why didn't you two just go?"

"We didn't want to leave knowing you were still trapped in here," Hayner explained. "What about Hinamori?"

"We can't leave without her," Pence said.

Amu was stuck on a landing on the stairway with white Nobodies swaying in front of her but they didn't make a move to attack. Sora floated away from her, over the railing and stopped in front of the sliding glass door, checking the lock to see if it could be opened. Su followed him halfway and watched him pull the lock with all his might.

"Amu! Come this way!" she called.

Amu turned to see Su waving her arms in midair. Ran and Miki immediately floated towards her. Amu turned and leaped over the rail. The Nobodies followed her, leaping into the air and wriggling down towards the musty carpet on the floor. They simultaneously did a flip in midair and landed gracefully on their feet, swaying in front of Amu and the charas. The group cornering Hayner, Pence and Olette suddenly turned around and began to walk towards Amu. Amu backed up against the glass door, trapped completely.

Then, all of a sudden, she heard a click.

"I got the lock open!" Sora announced.

"Yay!" Ran cheered.

Amu wasted no time. She grabbed the door handle and pulled with all her might. It opened a little, allowing the charas to escape. It took a few more tugs to open it wide enough for Amu to squeeze through. She tried to push it shut quickly, but didn't waste time trying to push it all the way. Through the tiny opening she yelled across to the three friends:

"Don't worry about me! Just leave this place. I'll try to find my own way back."

Olette nodded but Hayner and Pence didn't look too sure. "Come on guys," she urged the boys. "We should get away while we can and once we're back in town we can find help for Amu."

Hayner and Pence finally acquiesced. Hayner grabbed one door handle and yanked on it, holding it open for his friends before slipping out himself and shutting it.

"Good luck," Amu wished them.

She screamed when a Nobody suddenly pressed itself against the tiny gap. She turned and ran past the fountain to the back wall where Ran and Miki showed her the strongest clump of vines to use to climb the back wall. Beyond the wall were just more woods. Amu jumped down onto the grass and fallen leaves and made a mad dash into the trees. However, that didn't prove to be very useful. Amu just ended up deeper in darker woods and lost with no landmarks. She jumped into a ditch between some tree roots to catch her breath.

"We should be far away enough…" she huffed, putting a hand to her chest.

"Don't be too sure," Sora said, pointing above them. They looked up. Hanging in the trees like ninja were two more Nobodies with wing-like arms and very thin frame. They wore short robes, grey like the rest of their bodies. They dropped from the branches and gravity didn't seem to have much of an effect on them. They floated down gracefully like petals and landed on their toes with their wing-like arms raised like a ballerina's.

"Quickly, Sora, character transform with me again!" Amu exclaimed. Amu and Sora stared at each other for a while. Sora finally blinked.

"I can't do it for some reason," he said.

"Then what'll we do?" Miki said. "We can't fight them."

"No…" Amu argued quietly, coming to a realisation. "We _can_ fight them, we just can't defeat them. Remember, Ran, you and I could still attack Heartless, we just couldn't purify them or get rid of them."

Ran nodded, remembering the incident.

"Miki, you character transform with me!"

"Okay," Miki said.

The Nobodies dived into the ground as the blue light enveloped Amu and transformed her into Amulet Spade. Amu jumped into the safety of the branches as the Nobodies' arms shot out of the ground and slashed their way towards her. Their true strength was shown when they cut through the entire tree. The trunk swayed and tipped to one side. Amu summoned her paintbrush.

"Colourful Canvas!"

She splattered them with the coloured paint. They were still in the ground and were just trying to step out. The sticky paint acted like thick mud.

"Alright! That should keep them tied up for a while," Ran exclaimed.

"But look," Su said, pointing to the Nobodies. One of them had already managed to remove an arm and shake it free of paint.

"It won't hold them for long," Amu said. "We'd better get out of here now while we can." Amu jumped back down to the ground and took off in some random direction away from the Nobodies.

"Amu, you don't know where you're going!" Sora shouted.

"And you do?"

"Well… no, but this could be dangerous. There's no telling how far the woods go and you'll just get more lost."

"What's the alternative? Get killed by Nobodies?"

"I was just saying- look out!"

The Nobodies from before seemed to leap out of nowhere, trying to ambush. They'd made their move too early. Amu swiped at them with the brush and they were stuck in the paint again, each glued to a tree.

"I seem to have an advantage for now," Amu said, turning and taking off again.

"But how long will that last?" Su asked. "Character transformations don't last forever."

* * *

The sky was dark and stars twinkled against the backdrop of the night. As well as the stars, the windows of the suburban district of Sunset Hill cast a warm glow onto the streets. Hayner dragged his feet across the paved roads on his way up to the hill. The road ended at short set of stairs at the base of a hill. Beyond the stairs the road was packed earth. Hayner skipped the stairs two at a time and hurried up the road, hoping he wouldn't be late. But as he reached the outlook at the top of the hill, he couldn't help but wonder if Amu was okay and if she'd found a way back.

Axel was standing beside a small clock tower – a miniature version of the giant tower at Central Station. He didn't have his hood drawn up, making him recognisable, even in the low light.

"Okay, I'm here," Hayner announced, standing a good ten feet away. "What do you want?"

"Hey, remember your manners, kid," Axel chastised, turning to face Hayner. "Good to see you actually showed up."

"Just cut to the chase. Tell me what you need to find out."

"Slow down, rascal," Axel said, sitting on the fence rail. "You know that Hinamori Amu chick is pretty weird, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"She just turns up out of nowhere claiming to be lost. You don't even know where she comes from. She hasn't told you anything about her home or where she lives. Don't you think it's suspicious?"

Hayner snorted. "People have come from other worlds before."

"Of course… people who are _allowed_ that is," Axel corrected him. "If you're not allowed, then your existence in a particular world is forbidden and you must either return home or face a penalty… one that will remove you from the world, got it memorised?"

"Then what are you doing here?" Hayner snapped.

"I'm here to investigate that Amu girl; it's a special mission."

"Hey! I said I would give you information about the town, I didn't-"

"Uh-uh, but you did!" Axel waved a finger in his face. "You must have noticed her new fairy. I need you to nab that fairy for me."

"No way! I can't steal from a friend!"

"You've barely known her two days! You're hardly friends yet." Axel smirked and as an afterthought, added: "Oh, and by the way, I need a town map. You have no idea how many places I had to go through to get here! That tunnel system doesn't help."

Hayner clenched his fists as Axel disappeared into his ellipsoidal portal of darkness. How could he ask Hayner to do something like that?

* * *

It was completely dark. The heavy canopy blocked most of the available moonlight from reaching the forest floor. Amu sat down amongst some tree roots, trying to catch her breath and ignore the stitch in her side. Her character transformation with Miki had broken ages ago and she didn't have the strength to try another one with any of her tired charas. She allowed Miki – the most drained of them all – to go to sleep in their box. And as if life couldn't get any worse, she had wounds slashed into her left shoulder and right side by a more successful attempt made by the Nobodies to ambush her.

"Amu-chan, you look pale ~desu," Su said, floating over to feel her forehead. "You have a fever."

"Amu's been running from the enemies for hours!" Ran said, crossing her arms. "And Sora flew away pretty soon, too! The nerve of that guy!"

"He'll come back," said Su.

"You can't be sure of that!"

"Guys… stop…" Amu panted. She could swear she'd never felt like this before. She'd never actually been _chased_ by an X-Egg, not to mention her pursuers didn't seem to tire a single bit whereas Amu's body was burning all over. She was exhausted but couldn't even relax for a second because she knew that if the Nobodies returned she would have to get up and sprint with all she had even though her body didn't have the energy to do so.

"I wish somebody would hurry up and help Amu ~desu," Su sighed, trying to wipe her owner's sweat but her tiny handkerchief was completely soaked with only one droplet.

"Well, if someone is coming to help, they need to be here fast," Ran remarked, looking into the branches of a tree across from them. Amu and Su both looked. The two Nobodies were perched in the branches with their arms hanging limp and their bodies bent over. They dived from the branches and gracefully somersaulted in the air to land daintily on their toes. Amu tried to get up and realised the error of actually sitting down in the first place. She didn't have the strength to stand up again. "Amu!" Ran exclaimed.

"I can't! I'm trying… I just can't," Amu sighed dejectedly. "We're doomed now, huh?"

"No, listen!" Su squealed.

Amu couldn't be bothered, already overwhelmed by the sheer hopelessness of the situation. Both Ran and Su feared that they might turn into X-Eggs at any moment – who was to say Miki hadn't already? – but sure enough, they heard the sound of heavy feet crunching sticks and leaves through the woods. Amu eventually heard it too. The Nobodies ignored it at first, instead they advanced towards Amu but as the footsteps got closer, they changed their minds. Their heads swivelled to the left and suddenly one of them had shuriken in its eyes. It screamed in pain even though it didn't bleed and stumbled backwards into its comrade.

"Are you okay?" asked Sora, floating over to join Ran and Su.

"You came back ~desu!" Su beamed.

"You left us without saying anything!" Ran yelled in his face.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not good at articulation," Sora explained, rubbing the back of his head. "What's the use of saying something useless if someone else doesn't get it?"

"You seemed pretty good at it before," Ran muttered.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm a would-be self at all," Sora murmured looking down. "He has all of the abilities that I don't have yet. How can I give Him something he already has? Perhaps I'm actually a have-been self."

"What are you talking about?" Amu asked, trying to hold her wounds closed as her resolve steeled. "You don't have time to start a monologue."

The Nobodies hissed at the approaching opponent. A dark-skinned boy wearing a red basketball shirt and dark denim trousers leaped at them wielding a blue Bo staff. He jabbed at the blind one, sending it into the second one again. The Nobodies tumbled to the ground yet again. The blinded one started attempting to pull the shuriken out of its eyes. A branch above Amu shook and some leaves fell. A silver-haired girl wearing a sleeveless blue top and tan three-quarter cargo pants dropped from the branches. She had a handful of shuriken shaped like six-pointed stars in each hand.

"Fuu… and Rai?" Amu said, trying to remember their names.

"Nice work guys," said a smooth tenor voice. Amu looked to the right. Seifer appeared wearing blue pants stuffed into his boots and a light blue top that showed his midriff. A white coat almost billowed out behind him. In his right hand he held a long blade with a gun handle as a hilt.

"Not defeated," Fuu quickly reminded him.

The blinded Nobody had managed to pull a shuriken out of its eye. Both of them attempted to sink into the ground and attack from their most advantageous point. Rai got his Bo beneath them before they could submerge and catapulted them out of the ground. Fuu released her shuriken with perfect precision and pinned them to a tree. Seifer finished them with a few shots from his weapon. The three of them turned to Amu.

"Aw, the Fairy Girl's all outta luck, y'know," Rai teased. His Bo staff folded up into four sections which he could hide down the leg of his baggy pants.

"Can it!" Seifer snapped at him. His blade glowed and shrank until it had transformed into an ordinary gun barrel. He put the safety on and put the gun away in his coat.

Fuu went over to the tree, where the Nobodies had long disappeared after death, and retrieved her shuriken. They were placed carefully in a leather slip and put away in her back pocket. She turned around and stood by her friends to stare down at Amu.

"I had to go and get help," Sora finally explained. "See, Olette and Pence had already found Seifer's gang but they refused to help at first if they couldn't be given a location. So, I told them that I could pinpoint your location by sensing the other charas."

"Thank-you," Amu sighed, leaning back onto the tree trunk.

Fuu stepped forward and crouched in front of her. She took a little jar with a cork lid out of a pocket beneath her knee. Inside it was a green, bubbly concoction (it looked like carbonation, actually) with a yellow star floating in it. Fuu uncorked it and held it under Amu's nose. It smelled like jasmine.

"Drink," she said curtly.

Amu tried to take one bloodied hand away from her wounds and reach for the jar, but her body was starting to relax now that she was out of danger. There was no adrenaline to give her false energy or fear to keep her alert. Fuu grew impatient with Amu's slowness and pushed the jar to Amu's lips. Amu opened her mouth to let the potion in as Fuu tipped it. She'd thought that it would be bitter but it was sweet and the little star also drifted down her throat. Like magic, her wounds healed completely without scarring. The bruises, cuts and scrapes she'd obtained by running through the woods disappeared either partially or completely. Her muscles didn't burn anymore, but they still ached.

"Can you walk?" Seifer asked.

Amu stood up with Fuu's assistance. She took two steps and with the next step stumbled and would have fallen if Fuu hadn't caught her.

"Unable," Fuu said to her friends.

"What're we gonna do with her then?" Rai asked.

Seifer chuckled. "Isn't that pathetic…" He approached Amu and pulled her close, reliving Fuu of her weight. He then hoisted her onto his back and began the walk back to the town. "You can go to sleep… you don't have any idea how far you ran, do you?"

Amu had already beaten him to the chase.

* * *

Woo! And there's a fluffy new crack pairing: Amu/Seifer!

No, I'm not really gonna send the story in that direction. I'm not that high. The next update probably won't be within the next week... or the next two weeks at the most.


	5. Pyromaniac

Amu awoke in a white room. She wondered briefly if it was the same white room Hayner had mentioned in the mansion but when she sat up she saw that it was merely a room in hospital shared with at least ten other patients. Her charas were still asleep in their box and Sora's egg was also asleep on a soft folded cloth. Somehow she felt completely fine. She didn't ache and all of her cuts and bruises had disappeared completely.

"Wow… is this magic?" she wondered. This was the type of thing that only happened in fantasy but last night when Fuu gave her that potion she could feel the hyper healing of the mixture. She doubted that this was a dream – the pain of the previous night was too real.

Amu swung her legs over the side of the bed and found her shoes but didn't put them on. Her socks met the floor and she stood up without a problem. She wished she had a mirror so that she could see what state she was really in. She fingered the holes in Olette's clothes where the Nobodies had cut her. There were no scars. The blood dried on the cloth was the only reminder that there had ever been deep wounds there.

"Geez, Fairy Girl, do you wake up this early everyday?" Amu turned around. Seifer was leaning over the side of her bed. He yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "The Loser Squad came around last night. Olette brought you some more clothes."

Amu's gaze turned towards the neatly folded outfit on the bedside table. She picked it up and went straight to the bathroom without a word to Seifer. Frankly, it was sort of creepy to have someone you hardly know sleep at your bedside for who knows how long and Amu now refused to believe that she could have only been in hospital for one night. The outfit Olette had given her consisted of a blue off-the-shoulder punk shirt with a black heart and red heart with smiley faces in them, a black and white tartan skirt and a black belt with shiny chains hanging from it. She had also given Amu a pair of black and azure stockings to replace the socks. She stepped out of the bathroom with Olette's dirty, ruined clothes in her arms and returned to her bed to put her shoes on.

Seifer whistled at her. "How old were you again?"

Amu's eyebrow twitched. "I'm twelve."

"Hit puberty yet?"

Amu threw a dirty sock at him with a growl but he ducked and it missed. "You're so rude!"

"Hey, calm down, you're in a hospital," Seifer said, picking up the sock and flinging it back onto the pile on the bed. "I was just wondering. You're pretty tough for a kid."

Amu tied the laces on one shoe and looked up, asking for elaboration.

"You have no idea how far you ran. You'd almost reached the five kilometre radius mark. And you weren't running in a straight line either."

"Really?" Amu said, turning back to her shoes. Five kilometres? She'd never run that far in her life. "How long was I asleep here?"

"Whaddya mean? That happened last night."

"You liar," Amu accused, ignoring her shoe to turn around and point the finger at him. "There's no way I could get healed like this in just one night."

"You would have rather stayed here for a week?" Seifer raised an eyebrow. "I'd say it's better that you were healed overnight. The nurses don't have time to tend to injuries when there're sick people who need the attention, so they just give you potions."

"Potions?"

"What planet are you from? Potions heal you when you're injured. Duh."

"Well, thanks," Amu said with a slight snap, attaching her chara box to her belt and picking up the clothes and Sora's egg.

"For what?"

"Well… for everything I guess." Amu walked out of the room and checked out with the nurses at the desk in the waiting room.

"Typically, Amu doesn't realise that he was trying hit on her," Miki said as they left the hospital.

Amu jumped at the sudden voice and looked down at her box. "What'd you say?!"

"He obviously has a crush ~desu," Su agreed.

"Come on! He's at least five years older than me!" Amu yelled at them.

"That doesn't stop Ikuto," Miki pointed out.

Ran and Su gasped mockingly and covered their mouths. "That's so scandalous!"

"But he hardly knows me! I mean that Seifer guy."

"He's attracted to Amu's good-looking body," Miki argued. "He goes: 'hit puberty yet?' Face it, he's wishing you were available."

"And imagine how much more attractive Amu could be when she finally grows out," Ran added.

Su gasped for real this time. "Amu has to be careful ~desu."

Amu snapped the lid down on their heads. "You guys are embarrassing me with this conversation."

Amu had no idea where she was supposed to go now, so she just headed for the place dubbed 'the usual spot'. The hideout was empty. Amu sighed and turned around. Just as she'd done an about face Olette and Pence walked into the special spot. Olette was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a tight-fitting orange boat neck shirt with long sleeves. Pence was wearing a white shirt with an abstract expressionist painting all over it and black basketball shorts.

"Hinamori, you're okay!" Pence exclaimed.

"We were worried," Olette added. "Seifer brought you back and you looked a little beat up so we all went to the hospital. But I'm glad you're completely healed now."

Amu smiled. "Me too. Last night wasn't fun at all." That's all she said but there were now several questions she wanted to just blurt out. Something didn't sit right in this place anymore.

"Say, have you guys seen Hayner around?" Pence asked. Olette had been smiling and her smile dropped.

"He hasn't talked to us since last night," Olette said. "That's strange since it's already noon now and he should have at least been here. But we've looked everywhere."

"Did you check at his house?" Miki asked, climbing out of the box.

"No… that's usually the last place we'd find him," Olette replied. She and Pence exchanged glances.

"Well, we _have_ checked everywhere else," Pence reasoned.

"Alright, let's go. Come on, Hinamori, you're invited too."

"Um…" Amu started, making Pence and Olette stop just as they'd turned around.

"Is something the matter?" asked Pence.

"You guys… you've all… you don't have to call me Hinamori anymore."

Olette and Pence exchanged confused glances.

"Call me Amu."

"But isn't your name Hinamori Amu?" Olette said, not understanding. "Why your surname?"

"Ah! It's not my surname. I guess it's because this is a culture where you put the family name after the given name, right?" Amu reasoned, making gesticulations.

"Oh… I see," said Pence, though he still didn't understand. "So, you'd prefer that we call you Amu?"

Amu nodded.

"Okay!" Olette replied brightly. "Let's get moving to Hayner's house! We need him to discuss what our new topic for the report will be."

* * *

Hayner's house was in an old, suburban part of the town. The houses were wooden and built at least one metre off the ground for some reason. That reason was likely to be the creek running behind the blocks. Amu could guess that it had a tendency to burst its banks if the weather was very wet. The house wasn't a typical old lady house; it didn't smell of cats, or old wood or anything musty. In fact, when the old lady opened the door it smelt quite nice.

The woman was short and had a hunch in her back as her spine weakened. She was unbelievably _old_ with her skin wrinkling so deeply it appeared to be a mere sack over her flesh. She wore a plain green dress that buttoned up all the way and had a thick pair of glasses hanging from a thread around her neck. She raised those glasses to her eyes and peered through them at her visitors.

"Olette… Pence…" the woman said, recognising the first two. "And who's this?"

"This is our friend Amu," Pence replied. "We're looking for Hayner."

"Oh, really? Well, come in for a little bit."

"But isn't this urgent?" Amu asked. "We can't find him."

The old lady ushered them in and forced them to sit down on the couch. She hurried into the kitchen to start pouring some drinks and setting up a plate of snacks.

"It doesn't seem to be urgent," Ran commented.

"Yeah, otherwise she'd be flustered," Miki agreed.

"Good, then we can relax and enjoy some snacks," Olette said, sighing and leaning back into the green furniture. Pence grinned at the thought of those snacks.

"I don't think so," Amu said. "I've been having a weird feeling about this place for a while now."

Pence and Olette blinked at her. "How so?" Pence asked.

"I just get the feeling that there's something bizarre around here and you guys aren't telling me the whole truth," Amu looked at them and spoke in a low voice so the old woman in the kitchen couldn't hear. "You know your way around the mansion and you know about the Nobodies, don't you?"

"You're really sharp," Olette murmured, looking down at her hands. "We sure do."

"Olette!" Pence hissed.

"Hey, hey, it's not like knowing is gonna kill her, right? We know a bit about Heartless and Nobodies. We've encountered them before. Nine years ago in a great, dark storm the Heartless once tried to take over this town. If the Nobodies are back in town, though, something big and bad is about to happen."

* * *

"Well, thanks for the map," Axel said, fanning himself with the coloured paper. "But what about the fairy?"

Hayner looked at the railway he could see from the top of Sunset Hill. "I couldn't do it. My friends were all there, Seifer's gang too."

Axel raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't make an excuse of some sort?"

Hayner's eyebrow twitched. "I'm not a liar."

The redhead sighed. "Okay, how about I give you an easier task then?"

"I still don't really understand what's going on," Hayner said, turning to face Axel. "What's so important about the damn fairy?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," Axel assured him with a wave of his hand. "So, you remember DiZ's computer, don't you?"

Hayner didn't reply, but nodded stiffly.

"I need something from there too – some information. You wouldn't mind printing it out for me, would you?"

"Do it yourself!"

"Aw, but Hayner, I'm still so busy. It's just a little favour for me. And we've both agreed that there will be consequences if you make me mad…"

Hayner sighed. "You're so manipulative."

Axel laughed. "Good!"

* * *

Later that night, Hayner crept into the old mansion. He'd stayed away from his friends all day and though he knew they may be worried about him he didn't want to risk their lives. He took a torch through the dark, shadowy rooms of the mansion, passing Nobodies that didn't give him a second glance on Axel's orders. He made it down to the computer room and stood before the large computer. It was asleep. He sat down and toggled the keys a bit. It came back to life and asked for the password. Hayner slowly typed out the password Axel had given him:

N-A-M-I-N-E

The computer let him into the system, automatically pulling up windows of information. Everything was there, including a folder named 'secret reports' that Axel had specifically asked Hayner for. He still didn't understand why the Nobody couldn't just do it himself. Hayner clicked on it and immediately every screen turned white and the words "Search for Heart" appeared on them. He was confused for a minute. He gasped when he heard a loud whirr and a click. He turned around and saw a small camera on the wall behind him shoot a wide laser and scan him. He turned back to the computers at the sound of a bell and the white screens disappeared, replaced with more windows of information. He scanned the scientific words and technical jargon and finally realised what it was that Axel had come for. The Nobody could not have it. Hayner would make sure. He pulled a pipe from the machine with the white beam of light. Frosty steam gushed out of the opening and the beam disappeared. Hayner took the pipe to the computer and began to bash it. Screens cracked and shattered, a monitor crashed to the floor, sparks flew and electricity buzzed from the broken computer chips and cords. He only stopped when he was completely sure the computer would never operate again.

* * *

"Hey, Zexion, do you hear that?" Axel asked, sitting on a dusty armchair in the dining room. In the chair opposite him the short, black-cloaked, silver-haired Nobody sat stoically with his book in his lap. Even when he looked up his face was still shrouded in darkness.

"I think this was foolish," Zexion said. "There was no way he was ever going to listen to what you say."

"Duh! That's why I went to him."

"Did you really want all of that information on the DTD and Kingdom Hearts?"

"As if! It just gave me something to send him after," Axel admitted, scratching his ear. "And knowing that he'd absolutely abhor the idea of letting me get my hands on that info, he'd destroy it and give me a reason to do something utterly despicable."

Zexion stroked the cover of his book. "And from there, you're hoping to aggravate him enough to antagonise everyone else associated with him and that would inevitably lead to a fight."

"Yeah, something like that," Axel replied, putting a finger to his chin. "Now, what shall I do to punish him? Should I set fire to his hangout, or burn out the struggle garage?"

Zexion stood up and the light from the window finally allowed Axel to see his lips under the shadow of the hood. The silver-haired Nobody smirked. "Axel, you're a Nobody. I think you can do much better than that."

* * *

Hayner wouldn't face his friends at all the next day, even as the sun was going down that afternoon. He sat in a plastic chair beside a bed of white sheets and the woman lying between them was awake but mostly unresponsive. Every now and again her eyes would roll to the side and look at Hayner but then fall back to their original position staring at the ceiling. Hayner held her hand. She squeezed it but her grip was shaky and faltered several times. He could feel her weakening through her palm. The room was silent save for the rhythmic beeping of the life support equipment.

"Mom," Hayner whispered, afraid to break the silence. Her eyes almost rolled in his direction but she couldn't control the movement and they ended up staring into one of the upper corners of the room. "This is awkward. Everyone can turn to their parents when they're unsure, can't they? But I can't turn to you, or to dad."

"Be strong Hayner, I love you," the woman whispered.

"I know. But that's all you can tell me. Can't you make any more words?"

The woman was silent for a while, and then she said: "You… don-n-n't n-need me. You… a-a-are… stronger."

A tear slipped down Hayner's cheek and dropped onto her shaking hand. "That doesn't help. If I'm stronger then how can I help myself? Look at what I'm doing." He took a silver Heart's Egg out of his jacket pocket. "Look at what I took from her. What would he do with it if I gave it to him?"

"You… don't n-need me. You… a-are… stronger."

Hayner looked up when a nurse cleared her throat and tapped at her watch. He squeezed her hand back and stood up. "Well, I'd better get home now. Visiting hours are over and I was supposed to meet up with my friends today. They're probably worried since I didn't show up at all. See you next time." She had no sense of time anymore. Her eyes weren't focused enough to read the clock on the wall. Even if it was next year, to her, it would be soon. Hayner didn't plan to leave her alone until next year. He would come tomorrow.

"P-p-please…" she said, "ke-ke-keep it in mine-mind."

Hayner smiled at her and finally let go of her hand. "I'm stronger… gotcha."

He backed out of the room, not wanting to turn his back on her even for a second, still with a big smile on his face and left the room. As he left he examined the silver egg and thought of the painted eggshell he'd left with Amu the night before. What sort of power did this egg hold and how evil would he be considered if he were to hand it over to Axel? He pocketed it and sighed.

"I'm supposed to be stronger… but am I strong if I simply try to protect people?"

* * *

"Feh! I can't believe they would hide all that!" Amu grumbled, looking out of one of Olette's open windows while the older girl was downstairs watching TV with her brothers and cousins.

"Amu, there's no reason why they should tell you," Miki said. "You're a stranger here and if you got caught up in all that biz then what do you think could happen to you?"

"I'm already caught up in it."

"But they're just trying to protect you ~desu."

Ran hovered over Sora's silver egg, eyeing it critically. "Hey, how come this guy isn't coming out?"

"Oh yeah, he's been cooped up in there all day," Miki said, floating over to join Ran in staring at the egg.

"Leave him alone," Amu said, turning around to face the two charas. "Maybe he just doesn't want to come out again. Do you remember how depressed he sounded in the forest?"

"That could be it," Ran muttered.

"Hey, look at that ~desu," Su said from the window. Amu turned back to the window and peered in the direction Su was pointing. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't…" Amu started. She stared hard at it. It was a glow of orange somewhere in the town. As the orange danced upwards Amu's eyes widened. "It's a fire! Ran, quick! Character change!"

"Uh… right!" Ran replied.

Amu's berets changed to hearts and pink wings appeared on her wrists and feet. She leaped out of the window and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, watching the orange flames rise until she landed in the square in front of the burning building. It was full of people. Civilians stood around the edge of the square, watching the fire and making way for the fire-fighters and paramedics. The flames were already too hot and dense for any more rescues to be made. Su noticed Amu was staring wide-eyed in disbelief.

"How'd this happen?" Su asked. "What type of place is this?"

"Don't be silly!" Ran said, "You know… this is the hospital where Amu was treated last night."

Someone roughly pushed Amu out of their way as they ran towards the burning building. A policeman stood in his way and grabbed him.

"Let me go! I need to save her!"

"Nobody is allowed to enter this area! It's dangerous!" the policeman said, struggling with the energetic youth. Another came to his aid.

"But my mother is in there!"

"Have you checked to see if she hasn't already been evacuated?"

"She hasn't! She's not out here!"

"Hayner?"

The resisting blond stopped and turned around, finding Amu standing several feet away. He didn't know how to react. His frantic expression turned dark and angry.

"This is your fault!" he yelled at her.

"She only just got here-" one policeman said but Hayner pushed him aside and stomped back to where Amu was. Amu backed away fearfully.

"If you had never come here… if you had never asked me… this would never have happened. Go back to your own world and take your stupid fairies with you!" Hayner screamed, grabbing the silver egg out of his pocket and hurling it at her. She caught it both frightened and confused by the sudden appearance of a replica of Sora's egg. "You damn meddler! My mom is burning to death in hospital because of you!"

He pointed the accusing finger at her. Amu tightened her grip on the silver egg. Her eyes shone with tears and her bottom lip was quivering. Ran, Miki and Su rounded on Hayner.

"Don't say things like that to Amu!" Ran yelled. "How could it possibly be her fault?"

Hayner grit his teeth. "You fairies are also from her world. You don't know anything!"

"Meddling…?" Amu murmured.

"Amu wasn't even here when this fire started ~desu," Su snapped.

"Yeah! What role could she possibly play?" Miki yelled at him.

The policemen were distracted by the so-called fairies when Hayner rushed past them and shoved Amu to the ground. Amu had an awkward fall and landed on her shoulder.

"A person like you doesn't need to be directly involved," Hayner explained, "because your presence attracts the Nobodies and the Heartless. Allowing meddlers into someone else's world causes things like this to happen. When you find your way home… make sure you stay there."

"Okay, you," said a policeman, pulling Hayner's arms behind his back and cuffing him. "I think you need a night to cool down."

Hayner glared at Amu as he was led to a police car. The girl gulped as tears fell down her cheeks. Her charas floated back to comfort her, but they barely got out two words before she scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could, clutching the egg to her chest.

* * *

Olette had gone into hysterics when she returned to her room to find Amu had disappeared. Ignoring her mother and her aunt's warnings about going out at night, Olette threw on a coat and ran outside. She looked all over the town and it was well into the early hours of the morning when she finally stopped in the middle of Tram Common and sat down to think about where the lost girl could be. When she had the epiphany it was like she'd been hit between the eyes with a stone. She sprinted down to the Sandlot and straight to the back alley where their usual spot was cleverly hidden. She entered it, finding Amu fast asleep on the couch. Olette sighed with relief, walking over and nudging Amu.

"Please don't wake her."

Olette looked up to find the three charas staring down at her.

"Why?" Olette asked. "Is something wrong?"

The charas explained what had happened, from the moment Amu left Olette's house until now.

"Hayner said what!?" Olette exclaimed, covering her mouth when she realised how loud she was being. "That's awful. If I see him tomorrow he's gonna get what's comin' to him."

"Say, Olette," Ran said, getting the girl's attention, "What's a meddler?"

"A meddler? Why do you ask?"

"Hayner didn't just blame Amu for the fire," Miki explained. "He said it was because she was 'meddling' and therefore stuff like that was bound to happen because of her. But what does it mean?"

Olette shook her head. "Don't ask me. I don't have much of an idea. I'm not good with this sort of stuff. There are all these rules. Surely you must have figured out by now that you're nowhere near home, this is a different world entirely. And every time something happens, there are always rules. I don't understand them, but there are a few rules about meddling. It's when you interfere in the affairs of other worlds. It's so easy to do, especially if you're curious or just lost. Usually when people meddle around in other worlds, bad things will come of it, so visiting other worlds isn't generally permitted. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. But you see, I couldn't really. When it comes to worlds, we're all supposed to stay somewhat isolated from each other."

"Then why is Roxas living in our world?" Su piped up.

"Yeah," Ran added. "If he's from your world, then why is he allowed to come to our world and be a meddler?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," Olette replied, "I don't think he was from this world either." She turned to look at the sleeping Amu, clutching a silver Heart's Egg to her chest. "I'd better take Amu back home. My family is worried because I ran out of the house so late. You'll understand if I don't have anything more to say on this topic, right?"

"It's okay ~desu," Su said. "If you don't know there's no reason for us to pressure you."

"Yeah, let's just go," Ran agreed.

Amu stirred and opened her eyes. They were still a bit red and puffy from all the crying she'd been doing. She sat up, lowering Sora's egg to her lap. "Olette, what are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you so I came to find you," Olette said, smiling. "We should go home now-"

"No," Amu interrupted. "It's alright. I won't meddle in your life anymore. I'll just find my own way home."

"Hey now, don't get depressed by what Hayner said. It's still alright for you to stay with me."

Amu stood up and shook her head. "It's probably best if I don't. I heard what you said about bad things happening. Hayner said the same thing. I don't want anything bad to happen to you too because of me, so I'll leave."

Amu rushed past Olette, not giving the older girl anytime to reply or space to catch her. Olette gasped and turned to run after her but by the time she made it out to the back alley Amu had disappeared.

The tunnels were lit dimly and walking through them alone felt eerie to Amu. Although she knew she wasn't alone as such – surrounded by her charas – she could only hear her own footsteps. It was probably a bad idea to leave Olette's care, but thinking of Olette's family – Amu was sure that if anything happened to them Olette would behave the same way Hayner had.

"Amu, do you hear that?" Ran asked.

Amu blinked, gathering her wits about her and listened. There were voices floating around the tunnels, echoing off the walls and resonating. Amu walked into an open space which branched off in two other directions and found Seifer, Fuu and Rai. Rai was pacing around the floor, blabbering out some form of conversation, Seifer was sitting on a step half-heartedly participating in Rai's conversation and Fuu stood by the wall completely silent.

"Hinamori," Fuu piped up, being the first to notice. Seifer and Rai stopped their random conversation and looked up.

"Well, whaddya know," Seifer said, standing up. "It is the fairy girl."

Amu narrowed her eyes. "What are you three doing down here?"

"We're patrolling the tunnels, y'know," Rai answered. "Since we're, like, in the disciplinary committee we gotta protect the people and there have been Nobodies and Heartless everywhere, especially down here in the tunnels, y'know?"

"You don't look like you're really patrolling," Miki observed.

"We're taking a break," Seifer said. "It's almost three a.m., who'd be wondering around here at this time… I mean, besides you."

"Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be here either," Amu said. "Say, you guys know how to get to Tram Common from here, right?"

"Even if we do, there aren't any trams running at this time of the night," Seifer replied. "I thought you were staying at Olette's place."

"I moved out," Amu explained.

"Well, d'ya wanna stay at one of our houses?" Rai asked.

"No, I won't bother anyone anymore. I'll find my own way back to my own home."

"Tunnel four," Fuu said all of a sudden.

"What?"

"That's the tunnel that goes to Tram Common," Seifer explained.

"Thank you." Amu passed him and went up the steps, following the numbers on the walls until she found her way to tunnel four and ended up at Tram Common. The place had been lively during the daytime hours when Amu had visited it, but here in the dark hours of the morning the air was still and baited for the return of the sun and the people who would arrive with it. "Well, where do we go now?" Amu asked her charas.

"It's the worst case scenario," Miki said. "Unless you can stay awake. It's not like you've had no sleep whatsoever tonight."

"Amu, listen to Olette," Ran urged her. "You don't have to beat yourself up just because of Hayner. He tends to be a bully anyway."

"It's not just because of Hayner," Amu said, shaking her head. "It's because I'm a big factor in everything that happened. I attract the Heartless and Nobodies, don't I?"

"How would we know?" Miki wondered.

"Amu, please don't act this way ~desu," Su said, floating down in front of Amu. "I don't want to see you so depressed."

"You can't behave this way just because Hayner decided to blame you for something that you couldn't possibly have done," Ran insisted. "I mean, who do you know who would set fire to a hospital of all places? It's disgraceful!"

Amu's eyes widened. "I know someone… just one…"

Amu suddenly started running towards the hole in the wall and ducked out into the forest again, following the paths as best she could in the darkness. Under the sparse light of the moon the mansion loomed over her.

"Amu, why'd you come here?" Miki asked.

"If there's anyone trying to do something shady, they'd do it from a shady place that no one would want to go near, right? They must be in this mansion."

"What are you doing to do?" Su said, cocking her head to the side.

"I think I'll go into the White Room," Amu decided, walking up to the doors and pushing them open. She stepped inside. The air was as stale as ever and the windows were still clean. The place was devoid of Nobodies or Heartless. She held her breath, waiting for something to happen as she stared at the broken statue on the floor. Nothing happened; the door didn't even slam itself shut. She climbed up the stairs and made her way to the only door opposite the library. She turned the handle and pushed the door open in front of her, waiting for something to jump out.

Behind the door, everything was as white as snow – all the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the window panes and even the furniture. There was one long table in the middle of the room with a chair as each end and on the table was a white vase with white, glassy flowers in it. The only colours came from the drawings spread all over the room pinned up on the walls or strewn across the floor and from the skin, eyes and hair of a single girl and her crayons.

Even the girl was quite pallid and her hair was a pale shade of blonde. She wore a white dress and white sandals. The most colourful thing about her was her bright blue eyes. As for her crayons, she had every colour of the rainbow and more.

"Hello," the girl said sweetly, though she was a little surprised to see Amu. "Who are you?"

"Me? Who are you?"

"I'm Naminé."

"Well… I'm Hinamori Amu. But just call me Amu."

"Okay, Amu," Naminé said. She turned back to the sketchbook she'd been drawing in. "I don't really know what to do or say in this situation."

"Why don't you tell me what you're doing," Amu suggested, walking over to have a look over Naminé's shoulder. The drawings were somewhat childish but that may have just been due to the limitations of the crayons as a medium. "It looks… good."

"It's just a drawing," Naminé replied, finishing it off with a background of stars and indigo darkness. "Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for someone who… hurt one of my friends," Amu said, unwilling to admit all.

Naminé's eyes widened. "You're not looking for…?"

"I knew it wouldn't be long before one of you came running."

Amu turned to the other end of the room where Axel stood in all his black-cloaked glory making wisps of fire dance on his fingertips for his own amusement. Naminé pursed her lips. The expression was hard to decipher; it could have been fear or annoyance or anything in between.

"I see you made a new friend," Axel said, addressing both girls. "I find it just amazing that you people can just make friends in the blink of eye, outsider or not."

"I bet it was you," Amu accused. "You're the one who burnt down the hospital!"

"Guilty as charged," Axel admitted, unashamed and showing it. "I expected to get one of Hayner's angry little friends but if you came along, that's even better."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Amu snapped.

"Because I'm a Nobody," Axel answered, grinning from ear to ear. "I have no feelings. I haven't a care in the world for Hayner's dear mommy or Pence or Olette or anything else for that matter. So long as I get what I want in the end, I'll be satisfied. And what I want is that egg."

"What? You want Sora?" Amu gasped, clutching Sora's egg a little tighter.

"That's what I said."

"Stop it!" Naminé piped up. She got to her feet and stared Axel down. "You shouldn't go after Sora. You know what becomes of Nobodies who foolishly chase after a heart."

"This isn't foolish," Axel said. "But what you think you're doing is. Do you think you're doing him a favour by continuing to control his memories? Even when you tried to give them back you messed up and had to erase some memories. However, now that he isn't here I wonder what would happen if I destroyed all of your hard work? What would happen then? Would he wake up with all of his memories intact or will he be even more confused than ever before?"

"Axel, no!" Naminé begged. "Don't do this."

Axel extinguished the flames on his fingertips and clicked his fingers. Every picture in the room burst into flames. Naminé stared in horror as the flames claimed all of her crayon works.

"You won't need that anymore." Axel gathered a small ball of flame in his hand and launched it at Naminé's sketchbook. Naminé reached for it a fraction of a second too late and the book was set alight. She covered her mouth and stepped away from the hot fire.

Amu looked down as the egg in her hand began to wiggle. It floated out of her hands and hatched, revealing Sora once again. He blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"Hi Amu, what's going on?"

"This is a bad time," Miki muttered.

"Mornin' Sunshine," Axel mocked the added chara. "You're just in time to watch memories burning."

Sora looked around and sure enough, all of the scenes Naminé had artistically portrayed on paper were burning to ashes if they hadn't already. He bit his lip, fearing the worst was to come of this.

* * *

Alright, we're finally getting into the crux of this issue. The next chapter should be the end of this arc but if it's not then you'll know that I'm just wasting your time. I hope people are actually enjoying this because I haven't had many reviews so far (and even less people want to give reviews to my other big KH fanfic but oh well, all I can do is finish it).


	6. Character Transformation: Brave Heart

It's August 1! Happy Birthday **Kingdom hearts birth by sleep**! And thanks for being a faithful fan and reviewer! Just in case you're wondering, I promised I would get this chapter up for her birthday, and I made it. But everyone else who has been patiently waiting for this update deserves it just as much. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much on hiatus for the rest of the year so you won't be seeing much more between now and December T.T

On the bright side, I did manage to finish the Twilight Town Arc by the end of this chapter. I'm having the same length issues with my other KH story and in my planning for the future I'm trying to see if there's a way to economise on chapter length without cutting out too many action scenes.

This chapter has a really big action scene in it so beware of the long paragraphs.

* * *

The pictures burnt to cinders and fell to the floor, lining the room with ash. Naminé's drawing book was now just a pile of ash on the table. Amu thought the girl would cry but she just stared at it. She clenched her teeth.

"You…" she ground out to Axel. "You're… you're…"

"Oh, spare me; there's nothing you can say to me that I haven't already heard," Axel replied nonchalantly.

"Then just tell me what you want out of me!" Amu said making a fist in one hand.

Naminé turned to her and blinked. "From you?"

"He's the one who led me here. He gave me a card that turned my front door into a portal to this town and I have no way to get back home!"

"Aw, watcha gonna do? Cry?" Axel teased. "Although, what if I told you that there was a way back? I could give it to you if you give me what I've already asked for."

"I'm not going to hand Sora over to you!" Amu yelled at him. Naminé seemed surprised that she'd suddenly spoken so loudly. "He belongs to someone else and he's looking for that person."

"Yeah, I know that," Axel said, picking his ear and examining the product. "That's exactly why I want him. I'm looking for that person too."

"I can't believe you burnt down a hospital for this!" Ran screamed. "Don't you have common sense?"

"You could have just come to us in the first place ~desu," Su said with her arms akimbo and her brow knitted.

"I agree," Miki added. "I doubt the answer would have been different but it's better than killing so many helpless people just to get our attention! You have no idea how Amu's been feeling since you did that."

"Yeah, whatever," Axel muttered, flicking away the earwax he'd found and looking genuinely disinterested.

Amu growled. "Why you!"

At that moment she and Ran both felt the same thing and they spontaneously entered a Character Transformation. Amulet Heart stood shocked at what had just happened; she just transformed without consciously thinking about it. That had never happened before.

"H-how did this happen so suddenly?" Amu squeaked.

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Whoa, so you actually _transform_ into that pink girl? So you're gonna fight me now?"

"You're gonna have to pay for what you did."

"Amu, wait…" Naminé said softly.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Axel sneered, clicking his fingers. Amu took a step back, thinking he was going to create more fire, but he didn't. Instead, six white flashes brought more of those ninja-like Nobodies to the room. Axel grinned. "I've got friends with power, girl. These guys are my special Assassins, got it memorised? You ain't getting away from them this time, especially not you, _Naminé_."

The white girl gasped. The Assassins dove into the floor, going for her first. Amu leaped across the room, grabbing Naminé in the process. They narrowly dodged the first strike from a Nobody. Amu dove through the glass window with Naminé in her arms, doing her best to protect her from the flying glass. Amu leapt into the woods and from tree to tree on her way back to town.

"Amu, I know a place where we'll be safe for a while," Naminé said.

"Tell me where to go and I'll try to get there as fast as I can."

The wind blew into the White Room, spreading the ashes everywhere and causing the curtains to billow. Axel stared through the broken glass and snickered. "Don't think you're getting away from me that easily. I can summon more than just Nobodies…"

He raised his arms to the sky. The clouds began to gather, blocking out the moon and stars.

* * *

Amu landed on the sill of a large window that Naminé had directed her to. It was meant to swing open from the inside but with a piece of paper jammed lightly between the frames Naminé was able to open the door with no further assistance. They both crept inside with the charas following, stepping onto the bed and then down onto the floor. The room was very dusty, as if no one had been there for quite a while but it was left in such a state that it would appear well lived-in without the dust. There was a TV with a game console attached to it and games in messy piles around it on one side of the room next to a carved cupboard that seemed to copy an antique design but simplify it greatly. On the other side of the room was a desk and on top of it was a computer similar to Olette's but this one had stickers of stars, moons and video game characters around the monitor and a printer to go with it. There was a book bag on the chair, which was blue with a star-shaped back, and the homework was set up neatly on the desk beside the computer among pencils, pens, and other stationery. There were posters obviously stolen from the walls of the Sandlot advertising Struggle tournaments and anime posters as well as a poster of the bell tower above the train station. There was a half-empty laundry hamper in one corner of the room next to a green chest of drawers – everything else that was supposed to fill it was strewn around the room, moth-eaten or chewed out by rats, ants or other creatures. The door was firmly shut and locked.

"Amu, something strange is happening in the sky," Miki said, worriedly gazing at the clouds that were starting to shoot lighting in great forks and flashes. Su seemed a lot less worried about that.

"My, this place is so dusty ~desu. But, it's nothing a little cleaning can't fix!"

"Naminé, what is this place?" Amu asked, breaking her Character Transformation.

"This is Roxas' old room," Naminé replied. "When he used to live in Twilight Town, that is."

"So you know Roxas too?"

"Yes, I know him quite well."

"Roxas recently transferred to my friend's school but he must have obviously planned to move there," Amu said. "Why does this room look as though he left all of a sudden? He hasn't even put anything away, not even his homework."

Naminé looked at the tumultuous scene outside with an expression akin to guilt in her eyes. "Actually, the circumstances under which Roxas left Twilight Town were extremely sudden. It is true that he planned carefully when moving to your world, but it wasn't from Twilight Town."

"Huh? You mean he was somewhere else?"

"That's right. He wasn't even able to wish his friends goodbye." Naminé crossed the room to the chest of drawers and opened up a top drawer to remove something from it. "I'm sure if Roxas were here he would want to fight Axel, if not for the sake of the world, then for the sake of his friends."

Amu's eyes widened as Naminé returned. Roxas' character just seemed to get stranger and stranger. He knew Axel and Axel's plans and was involved with a great mystery disappearance in what Amu assumed was his hometown.

Naminé stopped in front of her and held out to her three clear marbles. Amu stared at them. They were the same marbles that Roxas had chained to his bag.

"We won't be safe here for long," Naminé said. "It looks like Axel is summoning the Heartless."

"The Heartless?"

"Amu," Sora said, "we can Character Transform again if you like. I think I'm ready this time."

"No, Sora," Naminé scolded. "You're not her chara. You should only help her when she can't do it alone. Let her discover her own powers first."

"My own powers?" Amu repeated. She looked at her charas who were concerned with the outside world and the sky's state of turmoil.

Naminé gasped. "They're coming!"

On cue little black shadows crept into the room from under the door. Heartless with wings wearing helmets and goggles appeared outside the bedroom window. It had been shut but they were banging on the glass, making it crack. Naminé thrust the marbles into Amu's hands.

"Help us! This entire world!" she exclaimed.

"Amu!" Ran shouted, just as the glass broke and the charas flew away in a panic.

Before the Character Transformation could be instigated Ran was forced back into her egg. Amu gasped, thinking something terrible had happened to her chara and friend. The fleur-de-lis marble glowed and jumped out of Amu's hand. It merged with Ran's egg, which in turn merged with Amu automatically.

"This again?" Amu cried. She didn't know what was happening to make her Character Transformation so automatic like that.

As per normal, she felt a power surge as she transformed but this time the surge was so tremendous she thought she would faint. The feeling ebbed away with the light and sparkles and left her standing transformed but when she looked down at herself, she didn't recognise the outfit. She was wearing a bright red, long sleeved mini dress with tiny trunks underneath. The cuffs arched over the back of her hand and she wore white, fingerless gloves. She had red thigh-high boots and a solid, red headband that pushed her hair flat against her scalp and bursting out behind it like a mane; making sure that it was kept well out of her face. The entire outfit was trimmed with gold and minimal amounts of black. The usual pink heart of Ran's was adorned on the left side of the headband with the red fleur-de-lis superimposed across it.

"Wh-wha…?" Amu stammered, shocked with her own appearance. "I did a character change with Ran and this happened instead?"

"Amu, be ready!" Naminé shouted.

Amu gasped and turned to the Heartless. They'd backed away from the light but they were advancing again. Amu spread her arms out, ready to shout 'heart rod' and pull two of them out of thin air, but the words were caught in her throat and didn't appear. Nothing came out of her mouth and what appeared in her hands weren't the heart rods. They were two white rapiers tipped with gold. Their hilts were made of intricately twisted metal of Celtic design and they seemed to glow.

"What's this now?" Amu gasped.

"Amu, don't space out now," Miki said. "We have to do something."

Amu nodded and turned to her adversaries. The little shadows were turned towards Amu but they were wary of the bright light that had suddenly shone from her. The light had even defeated some of their comrades already. The flying Heartless were more active and took the initiative. They dove for her first and Amu saw that there were only two left after the light had obliterated the others. She blocked them both with her swords and jabbed them both into the body of one of them. She flung it over her head into the other and sent them crashing into a wall. One disappeared. The smaller Heartless were much easier to cut down. It only took two or three strikes to make their bodies dissipate into black smoke. The second flying Heartless charged at her. She stabbed it with her sword. Amu kicked the Heartless off her sword and sliced up the remainders. The black smoke dissolved.

Amu looked around and upon realising that there wouldn't be any more Heartless appearing, she relaxed. Her swords disappeared in a flash of white light. "That was so awesome!" she whispered to herself.

"Amu, you're so cool!" Sora exclaimed. "You do have the power to defeat the Heartless after all!"

"This is great!" Miki cheered.

"Congratulate her later," Naminé snapped. "This looks like a Heartless Storm. There are more of them everywhere."

"Everywhere?!" Amu moaned. "How am I going to clean this up all by myself?" Nevertheless, she followed Naminé's lead and leapt out the window to face the masses of creatures appearing in the town.

* * *

Hayner curled his legs up to his chest and sighed. The cell was empty and the bunk was hard with only a thin, worn-out mattress and a coarse blanket. There was no pillow; maybe the person before him in the cell had stolen it or something.

"I didn't mean it," he said softly, repeating it in his mind as a mantra. It wasn't Amu's fault after all. Axel was the one who did it. Even if everything could be somehow traced back to her it wasn't her fault. Hayner now felt so ashamed about what he'd said and done to her only a few hours back and he couldn't sleep. Not only was the bed too uncomfortable, the guilt was turning the gears in his head too fast to allow it.

He heard the thunder boom and saw the lightning flash across the sky through the barred window but he didn't think anything of it at first – just a regular thunder storm. Then he suddenly heard shouting and orders being barked at the detention centre guards. A couple of them on post ran past his cell on some urgent business.

Something crashed through the back wall of his cell. He curled up and put his arms up to defend himself from flying debris. He jumped off the bed and ran to stand against the bars; as far away from the wall as he could. A dark monster had charged into the detention centre. It was large and round with two cones on the top and one at the bottom (probably representing ears and a tail). Its jagged mouth was gaping wide and its unblinking, glowing yellow eyes seemed to flash when it saw Hayner. It shook itself, preparing for another charge. Hayner ducked under monster, realising that it was levitating and didn't wait or turn around to look at it; he just ran. He clambered over the rubble and into the alley behind the centre and took off down the street.

The sky was in the worst state of turmoil Hayner had ever seen. The clouds clumped, swirled and moved around each other in a way Hayner had never seen them before. He could only think of Pence, Olette and his grandmother. He'd made it as far as Station Heights when he saw something that made his blood chill.

Little shadows – far smaller than the monster that had attacked him at the centre – pounced upon a red-haired shopkeeper who was running from them, screaming in terror. They smothered her, clawing at her chest until a light appeared. They greedily dove for it but the heart fluttered out of their grasp. It was swallowed by darkness that bulged, hardened and took shape as a little red hourglass-shaped creature with a yellow, pointed helmet on its head and little bird-like feet. The body didn't manifest as anything else, it merely disappeared. Sensing that there was another heart nearby, the shadows and the new creature turned to Hayner. He gasped but he was frozen on the spot. The new monster gathered a ball of fire on the point of its helmet. Hayner suddenly snapped back to life and gathered his wits as the ball of flame came hurtling towards him.

"Move loser!" someone screamed, slamming into Hayner and knocking him to the ground. The fireball hit a stall behind him and set it alight.

Hayner pushed off the person on top of him. "Hey! What's the big idea!" he yelled. He'd known by the sound of their voice that that person was Seifer.

"I'm saving your life, moron," Seifer retorted, pushing Hayner back and blocking him with his sword. "Are you so stupid that you need a commentary from me to understand that?"

"I was about to move!" Hayner tried to argue but he knew it was useless and that now wasn't the time to do so. "I'll help you take care of those things."

"I don't think so," Seifer replied.

Suddenly Hayner was grabbed by the back of his shirt and dragged away. He turned back, finding that Rai had a fistful of his shirt and Fuu was standing by in a battle-ready position.

"We've gotta go find a safe place and hide, y'know," Rai said.

"I can fight!" Hayner protested. "Just hand me a struggle bat, or a pipe or anything and I'll smash these guys!"

"Ineffective method," Fuu added.

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Normal things don't affect those shadows," Seifer explained. "Even Rai's staff and Fuu's shuriken just went straight through. This sword seems to be the only weapon in town that can cut them." Seifer swung the sword into his usual battle stance as the red creature readied another fireball and the shadows advanced. "Go, now!"

"No!" Hayner shouted. It was no use, though. Rai was bigger and stronger than Hayner. He lifted Hayner by the waist and slung him over his shoulder. He and Fuu turned and ran while Seifer dealt with the Heartless.

* * *

Amu landed on the bell tower of the train station, panting as she stared over Twilight Town. It was so dark she couldn't even see the horizon from the highest point in the town. Fighting Heartless was tiring, even more so than chasing down X-Eggs. The Heartless were suddenly everywhere and their numbers were astonishing. If she defeated one, five more would appear to take its place. How was one supposed to defeat an enemy that multiplied its forces like that?

"This is terrible ~desu," Su whimpered. "How can Amu possibly defeat all of these enemies by herself?"

"Maybe there's a catch," Sora thought aloud. "Perhaps we have to go and find the person controlling them and defeat him."

"I'll bet it's Axel," Amu huffed.

Miki was looking down at the square below the tower and just then a small figure came running from Station Heights chased by Heartless. More appeared in front of it and it stopped, completely surrounded. "What's that?" she asked. "Someone's in trouble."

Amu also looked down at the scene below and made the prompt decision to jump down there and assist. Her pink wings appeared on her wrists and she floated, landing gracefully in the middle of the ring of Heartless. She didn't even look at the person she was protecting, she charged headlong into the black beings. They were all just shadows – some were a bit larger with longer limbs and longer antennae – but they were all fairly easy to defeat. They turned on Amu; picking her as their new target. One of the larger shadows jumped at her. She swung one of her swords at it and sliced it clean in half. It disappeared. Something grabbed her ankle and she shrieked. She looked down and one of the large shadows had grabbed her from a pool of darkness and now intended to drag her down. She stabbed a sword into the pool but the Heartless did not let go, somehow unaffected whilst inside its pool. The others were advancing on her quickly. Amu flipped over and did a cartwheel lifting the Heartless out of its safe pool and sending it careening into some of the others. They exploded into black smoke. The group was significantly smaller now, but more were appearing. Most of them were far larger than the shadows: fat ones with large, long arms bearing broken cuffs, stocky monsters walking like gorillas that were wearing helmets and armour and carrying shields with a dog's head on it (the shield seemed to be a separate Heartless, for it was snarling and also had those yellow glowing eyes), and even large, red wyverns, which had no black on their bodies like the others but still had those glowing yellow eyes and displayed the common heart-shaped motif on their chests.

"Damn, fairy girl, I almost didn't recognise you."

Amu whipped around. Seifer was kneeling on the ground, bruised and bleeding not unlike the state she had been in the night before. He had his sword out again but his buddies were nowhere to be seen.

"Seifer, are you okay?" Amu exclaimed, running over to stand beside him and defend him if any of the Heartless decided to move in all of a sudden.

"I'll be fine," he replied, taking a bottle out of his coat. The substance inside looked like potion but it had a moon as well as a star in it. He flicked the lid off and gulped it down until every last drop had been drunk. Amu's eyes widened as his wounds and bruises disappeared before her very eyes. "Hi-potion," he explained, throwing the bottle carelessly over his shoulder and stretching his muscles. "Good as new."

"These new ones look way tougher," Miki said worriedly.

"Think you can handle this?" Seifer asked Amu with a slightly mocking tone. Amu huffed.

"Of course!"

The fat Heartless and the shield-soldier pairs were content to keep their distance and their defence. The wyverns made their moves first, too impatient with waiting for the two to attack. They circled once and then dived at them. Seifer rolled out of the way. Amu jumped onto one's head and then high into the air. That one flew after her. It opened its jaws to bite and Amu stabbed it through the roof of its mouth. She hoisted herself back onto its back and stabbed it a second time. It growled but was still able to shake her off. Only a few wisps of smoke radiated from its injuries. The other two wyverns swooped in on her as she fell. The third dove down to the ground and then flapped heavily up to her. Amu looked around at the three approaching her. They were definitely a lot tougher than the shadows. Amu did a twist, hitting each of the two flying at her sides in the muzzle with the hilts of her swords and then did an extra turn to give them each a kick for good measure. They were only slightly dazed but they weren't charging at her anymore. She turned to the one below her. It started to spin, preparing for a corkscrew uppercut. Amu gasped but realised that she had to think of a counter quickly. She slapped both hands and her swords together. In a flash of light they changed form and Amu stared at them in wonder. The swords had merged; the hilts were combined to become thicker and more intricate and the two blades bent at the end to become a single point. Amu pointed her new sword at the wyvern below her and spun herself in the opposite direction. The two opposing corkscrew attacks clashed. They stopped spinning abruptly but Amu had come out on top with her sword wedged deeply in the wyvern's head. It moaned as its body broke into tiny particles that just faded away.

She landed on her feet in the middle of the square where Seifer had been taking out enemies on the ground. He had not made much progress either. He was bludgeoned with a shield and thrown to the ground. The gorilla-like Heartless aimed the shield at him. A second aimed at Amu. They both rolled out of the way when the two shields suddenly blew fire from their mouths. Amu hadn't been looking where she was rolling to and bumped into one of the big fat ones. It looked down at her curiously. Then – as if it had only just realised she was an enemy – it made a fist and swung at her, knocking her right back into Seifer. Two of the other fat ones raised their fists into the air and jumped hard, making a shockwave so powerful that the energy became visible light. Seifer and Amu were both knocked into the steps before the station.

Seifer wiped the blood off his lip and looked at their adversaries as even more popped out of portals: more shadows and some small ones in clanking armour wearing red claws on their fingers. "These guys are really strong," he panted as Amu tried to recover from the blow to her back. "How are we going to defeat them?"

He tossed her a potion and drank one himself. Amu grabbed it without a second thought and tipped it down her throat. Her charas and Sora flew down to push her into a more upright position.

"You know... this kind of reminds me of something..." Seifer murmured. Amu turned to him. He had a far-away, nostalgic expression and his blade transformed back into the ordinary gun.

"Hey!" she yelled at him. "Snap out of it! This is no time to be spacing out." She thought he might have hit his head or something as he looked up.

"Eleven years ago..." he continued. "Something like this happened. The sky went dark and stormy and monsters appeared everywhere. I was still only little and I don't remember it well – no one does for some reason; some people can't even recall a single thing of that night. But I do. And I remember this guy, a man dressed in a uniform. A whole bunch of them turned up out of nowhere and unlike us, they could fight and defeat the monsters. But this one guy, he was completely different. He was really small – still just a kid, I think – and while his friends were just running in with guns blazing and their big swords and whatever, this guy would turn around and look at us. When I met him he saved my life..."

* * *

_A six-year-old cowered in the corner of a dark alleyway. An enormous, levitating creature that was round with cone-shaped ears and a tail hovered above him with its glowing eyes gleaming and jagged mouth stretched across its face like a grin. What could he do? He couldn't fight. He was too small. Everything he'd thrown at the monster just phased straight through it. Tears streamed down his face and his nose had gone runny. A large ball of dark energy had appeared in the sky to start sucking up the town and all of the weakened hearts within it. The child cried and slid down the wall to sit down. Hopeless. He was too weak, too small, too scared to be able to do anything. _

_He cried out in alarm when a large blade pierced through the monster before him. Something supernatural surged through the blade making it glow and causing ice to spread all over the body of the monster until it was frozen solid. Then it was smashed against the floor and the pieces disintegrated into smoke. _

_The person wielding the sword was short with wild spiky hair wearing a dark uniform. He seemed far too small to be wielding a weapon that size, but that's what made him look so big. The frightened child stared in awe at this small person wielding a huge sword and looking like a big man. _

"_Don't be scared," the person said. It was a boy and the pitch of his voice meant that he was still young but his voice – in the child's mind – came from somewhere up higher, like it was coming from someone with the stature of a god. _

"_My home's getting wrecked," the child replied to justify himself. _

"_You can't call it yours if you're not willing to fight to keep it," the stranger said. He took one of his secondary weapons off his belt and handed it to the child. "When it gets dark you need to find your light. If you can find your light, nothing in the world will take away the things you hold in your heart." _

_The child took the weapon – a handgun that looked ordinary – and looked up. He didn't understand what those words meant but he could feel them. His heart lifted and his tears stopped flowing.

* * *

_

Amu gulped. "Don't make me cry at a time like this!" she wailed, even though her eyes were already teary.

"Sorry, I got a bit trapped in memory lane," Seifer said. "Only because now it seems like the same situation: what do I do? Even if I fight it's useless if I can't win. I don't know how to make it stop."

Amu also looked up to the sky. Past the soaring wyverns was a dark, purple and red ball of energy. The wind picked up. It was moving towards the dark ball. Anything that got caught in the wind was sucked into it. The bells started to swing in the wind and rang out across the down. Eventually, the whole town would be devoured.

"A shame, isn't it? And you'd already made some great friends too."

Amu whirled around. Axel was sitting casually on the steps right behind her. She darted back in alarm. "You! I knew you had to be behind this! Make it stop right now."

"Even if I wanted to I can't," Axel replied. "Once the Heartless go rampant there's nothing that can stop them until everything in the world has been devoured by the darkness. Got it memorised?"

"How could you be so cruel?" Su exclaimed.

"I've got no feelings! Get it memorised, sheesh!" Axel sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Why you!" Miki growled. "I oughta-"

"Don't even bother," Axel said. "What are you going to do now? What can you do? I've let the Heartless loose to defeat you and it's working. It looks like I win."

"You won't win," Amu argued. "I'll make sure that you don't! A person like you who goes around and destroys people hearts without a care – even if you are a Nobody – can't be allowed freedom. This world doesn't deserve it. Just because you're out after some petty gain, searching for someone or whatever, whoever it is isn't important enough to destroy this world."

"Hey, hey, do you even know who you're talking about?"

"It doesn't matter who it is. Everyone's hearts are precious. I won't stand by while you belittle them for your own selfishness!"

Though Ran had been unusually quiet during this odd Character Transformation the Humpty Lock began to glow. Amu was surprised. The white outline of a keyhole identical to the Lock's keyhole appeared in front of her and the lock started to lift until it was pointing up at the sky. Axel suddenly jumped to his feet, summoning his two red chakrams.

"What the hell!" he shouted.

Seifer stared in wonder at the bright light. A beam shot from the Humpty Lock through the keyhole and into the centre of the dark mass above them. Under Amu's feet a bright heart-shape appeared – large enough to cover almost the entire square before the station. The amount of light it was emitting was tremendous. Seifer had to close his eyes against it. Even from high up on the rooves of Tram Common where Fuu, Rai and Hayner had been crouched in safety from most of the Heartless the bright light could be seen as clearly as day. The wind level rose to almost cyclonic volumes but the only thing moved by it this time was the Heartless. They shrieked and ran from the light; only too happy to be sucked back into the darkness from whence they had come. Naminé witnessed the show from a nearby balcony, clutching the rail tightly as the blinding light filled the square. Axel shielded himself against the bright flash but he could feel his body of darkness starting to break. Even so, he grinned. With all of the strength he could muster, he created a dark portal and left the world. The clouds swirled around the dark mass and were sucked in like a whirlpool in the sky. The darkness shrank until it was only a small sphere, which fizzled away like an ordinary dark portal and left behind the calm morning sky.

Amu's Character Transformation finally broke, but it wasn't Ran that emerged, it was the Heart's Egg. Amu stared at it in amazement. It had changed. The pink had become a dark red patterned with little black four-pointed stars and a fleur-de-lis was superimposed across every red heart. The egg glowed and the marble fell out, returning it to normal. It hatched and Ran jumped out, doing a little spin as if nothing had ever happened.

"Ran!" Miki and Su exclaimed, hugging her tightly.

"We were worried when you suddenly returned to your egg ~desu," Su told her.

"You are alright, right?" Miki asked.

"Never better!" Ran replied, throwing her pom-poms into the air. "I could see everything from where I was! I never knew Amu had such fighting talent."

"Yeah, I guess it was amazing," Amu agreed, looking at her own hands.

"Do you think there's another hidden talent there?" Sora asked.

Seifer was still dazed by the bright flash of light he'd seen and just stared blankly in her general direction. "Can someone explain to me what exactly just happened here?"

"I'd like to," Amu replied, turning back to him and offering a hand to help him stand up, "but I don't really know myself."

She suddenly looked up and turned to the sound of someone calling her name. Hayner was running up from Station Heights. He stopped in front of her and leaned on his knees while he caught his breath but Amu was already wary of him, both wondering what he could want and thinking of what he'd said that night. He finally had enough air and stood up straight; looking her directly in the eye.

"Amu," he started, swallowing and licking his dry lips. "I'm sorry..."

"About what?" Seifer asked. Sora kicked him in the head, warning him not to interrupt.

Amu let her guard down a bit and clasped her hands in front of her. "It's alright-"

"No it's not!" Hayner insisted. "Look, all that stuff I said to you... I was just really mad... b-but I wasn't mad at you if that's what you're thinking now, it was just..."

Amu smiled. "I know what you mean."

"Still... I'm so sorry," Hayner whispered. "I don't think I could do anything to make it up to you... have you found your way home yet?"

"Ah... no," Amu replied. "Do you have any leads?"

"Maybe. It would be the least I could do if it worked."

Amu looked at her charas. Ran shrugged. "It's all we have."

Amu nodded. "Thank-you Hayner. By the way, what happened to Pence and Olette?"

* * *

Pence and Olette were both fine, it seemed and they were both eager to see Amu home safely. They gathered at the central train station and the three friends each put a little of their munny towards buying a train ticket for Amu. Then they stood at Platform 0, waiting for the train to pull up.

"It's exciting to think that Amu finally gets to go home," Olette said, fixing the cloth over the basket she was holding. "But it is kind of sad... it's almost like losing Roxas all over again."

"It'll be okay," Pence assured her.

"But she won't even be able to write to us."

"I'm sure I can work something out," Amu said, trying to be hopeful. "Maybe if I look really hard and put in some requests I could find someone who can deliver mail to other worlds."

"I'm sure that'll just make you look loony," Hayner replied. That made everyone, including the charas, laugh. Amu huffed.

"Hey, you held a party and didn't invite me?"

The group turned around to see Seifer approaching them with Fuu and Rai in tow as well as an extra person. They were very short (only just above Seifer's knees minus the tall, yellow hat they were wearing). That person looked very odd, too. Not only were they covered from head to toe but between the white and yellow striped pants, a blue coat and that yellow hat, their face could only be seen as a black shadow with glowing, yellow eyes. Amu squealed when she got a good look at them, and they squealed back and hid behind Seifer's legs.

"What is that?!" Amu squeaked, pointing at the little black-faced person.

"Is that another Heartless?" Ran gasped.

"A what?" the little person asked, peering out from behind Seifer's legs. He had the voice of a child.

Seifer almost threw his head back with laughter. "Who? Vivi? He's completely harmless. Aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah... I-I guess," Vivi stammered. He gasped and jumped back in astonishment when he noticed the charas. "Fairies! I can really see them!"

"We told him about your little fairies," Rai explained, "and then he was all excited and wanted to see 'em too, y'know?"

"He's really cute ~desu," Su giggled.

"Huh? Y'think so?" Seifer said, looking down at Vivi as if he was giving a close inspection. Vivi twiddled his fingers and tried to make himself look smaller. "Yeah, I guess so. By the way, you dropped this."

Seifer caught Amu by surprise when he suddenly tossed a small marble at her. She fumbled with it a bit before finally grabbing it. It was the fleur-de-lis marble that had changed her into the warrior.

"Oh, thanks," Amu said.

"These are for you too," Olette said, handing her the basket. "I cleaned your clothes and put a jar of cookies in there, just in case it turns out that the trip is really long and you get hungry."

"And I got a bottle of watermelon juice," Pence added, pulling out from behind his back where he'd hid it. "A real watermelon was too expensive."

"All of the best things are too expensive," Hayner sighed. Olette and Pence looked at him expectantly. He blinked and then realised that he hadn't brought a present for Amu. "Um... do you like pretzels?"

Olette sighed. "Hayner, don't be silly."

"It's okay," Amu said. "You guys didn't have to give me presents."

"Train," Fuu piped up all of a sudden. All in company turned. The doors of Platform 0 had opened and a blue train with stars and crescent moons decorating it rolled in. At the front it seemed to be wearing a point wizard's hat for some reason. Beyond the doors it looked as if there was a completely different realm: The train tracks glowed green in there and the air looked like green and blue coloured space.

"It's the mystery train!" Vivi exclaimed, excited to see two very rare things in one day.

"It looks like the right train arrived at least," Hayner muttered as the doors opened. "Are you ready to go, Amu?"

Amu nodded. "I'm glad that you would do this for me. I'll miss you all."

"Us too," Miki added.

"Good luck," Olette said. "I hope you get home safely."

Amu got on the train and the charas flew in with her. The doors closed as if the train itself wasn't expecting anyone else to get on it and started to move. Amu looked out the window at the three friends waving and the other four just watching her go. She pressed one hand and her face to the glass to see them as she passed through the doors. They closed behind her and disappeared.

The train chugged on to some unknown destination.

* * *

As I was writing this I was thinking: 'hey, I didn't put Vivi in there' so I tried to squeeze him in at the end. I hope that's a satisfactory chapter at least because I won't be able to write anything for a while. =D


	7. Nobody

Clearly, I haven't taken my hiatus very seriously. Even when I'm busy I find the time to write, that's why this came up a month earlier than it really should have. I suppose it could have come up earlier but I was at a bit of a snag with this chapter. It refused to be written! But I decided to force myself to finish it before something really, really important came up so that i wouldn't have to think about it. Although, in retrospect, that means I'm going to be thinking about the next chapter anyway. Damn it! I can't win against my imagination

* * *

The train ride wasn't very long. It emerged from its green and blue dimension into what seemed to be another completely new dimension and stopped. The doors opened and stood open as if they were waiting for Amu and her charas to step outside.

Amu got out hesitantly a looked around. They were on a tiny island with small trees here and there and a tall but wonky tower. The island was floating above an ocean of lava that seemed to go on forever only dotted by a few green islands that looked like mountains peaking out of the sea under a sky streaked with black, burgundy and smoky clouds. It all gave her the creeps. She turned around to jump back on the train and gasped. It was gone! Even the tracks had vanished without a trace.

"Amu, this way," Ran urged her. "There's a front door to the tower."

"Hurry up!" Miki called, flying ahead with Sora to the tower doors.

"Uh, yeah, coming," Amu gulped. She jogged over to the tower and up the steps to the double doors. She pushed them open just enough to step inside comfortably.

Inside the tower was a narrow, circular room with a tall, thick pillar in the middle. A staircase wound around half of it to a green door. However, there was another door in the pillar. It was surrounded by flecks of dust and the finish on the green-painted wood was still shiny, meaning that the door was brand new. On its golden handle a note was hanging. Su hovered over to the note and lifted it to read it. It said:

"_To our most honoured of guests,_

_If you have the key, feel free to use the new elevator. If not, prove yourself on the stairway. Good friends are always welcome but if you hold evil in your heart you will be turned away post haste. _

_From this old wizard_

_Yen Sid."_

"Who's this 'Yen Sid' guy?" Miki asked.

Sora smiled. "It's like he said: he's just an old wizard."

"Is he an old wizard who can get me home?" Amu asked.

"Most probably," Sora replied. "I haven't seen him unable to do anything so far."

"But we don't have the key to the elevator," Ran moaned. "What does he mean by 'prove yourself on the stairway' anyway?"

"He probably means we'll have to fight some things," Miki groaned.

Amu echoed that groan. "I've had enough of fighting! My body's aching all over."

"It's the only thing we can do," Sora said. "He's the only person around here who can get you back to... wherever it is you live."

"To the stairs!" Ran declared. "Come on, Amu! It's just a little further and then you'll be home sweet home for the rest of your life!"

Amu whined – still not liking the idea of having to fight so soon after having the fight of her life but seeing that she had no choice she began her ascent to the stairway.

* * *

At the old mansion just outside Amu's hometown the garden was miraculously in pristine condition again. The building was still as dark as ever, if not darker, but it was cleaned up until it was back in its prime. Axel stood outside the double front doors with his hood down and let out a sigh. He was about to pull one of the doors open but they both opened up in front of him. Standing in the gap between them was an average sized man wearing them same kind of cloak as Axel but with his hood drawn up to hide his face. Even without a view of his face Axel still seemed to recognise him and grinned.

"Back so soon, Axel?" the man asked.

"What? Surprised?" Axel replied suavely. "I think you may be underestimating me, Saïx."

"Maleficent was not expecting you for at least a week," the man named Saïx replied. "But come in anyway."

"Don't mind if I do," Axel said as Saïx stepped out of the way. The hooded man closed the door again and disappeared into a dark portal to return to wherever he'd come from.

Axel surveyed the interior of the mansion. He hadn't actually seen it yet and it was quite the grandiose design. The hall was wider rather than longer with tall, marble pillars holding up the ceiling. They had already been altered to the mistress's liking with effigies of black dragons snaking their way around them. There were two doors on each wall to the left and right and right before him was a grand staircase that branched off to the left and the right at the top. Two tall double doors stood at its peak. But they weren't his goal. Axel walked around the staircase and behind it was a smaller set of double doors that had been customised to have the emblem of the Heartless across it. The doors opened by themselves and Axel once again took the invitation to enter.

The room behind the stairs was a drawing room. At the far end of the room was a wide window looking out over the inner courtyard, which starkly contrasted the front garden. It was full of black thorns and a fountain featuring a dragon was pouring green liquid from its jaws that misted and caused a sickly green fog to settle over the cracked paving stones. Inside the room was just as dark and eerie. Thick heavy curtains were hanging open either side of the window and on the wall to the left was a large fireplace with a pile of black soot and ash in it and a green fire lit not on top of the ash but above it, hovering in its place and casting its green light across the room. There were two ottomans in front of a small, glass top coffee table and in front of the green flame was a tall armchair padded with regal red cushions. A black crow with orange legs was perched at the top of the chair but the occupant was hidden from view so far.

Axel sauntered over to the armchair but knew better than to stand in front of it. "So," he began. "How was school?"

"Fine," the person in the chair replied. "I gave them a pop quiz today. Why don't you come here so I can see your face?"

Axel obeyed the command and walked around the armchair to stand in front of it, wary of not blocking his mistress' view of the fire. The thin woman with her hair in a bun on one side of her head looked up from the papers she was marking.

"And? Did you get any results?" she asked darkly with the threat of death in her tone should Axel fail to deliver.

"You'll be surprised, Maleficent-sama," Axel grinned. "I found an Angel."

"Really? And what about Roxas?"

Axel hesitated for a moment. "Roxas? I... I didn't find him. I really wasn't actually searching for him; I was just looking for the Angel."

Maleficent looked directly at Axel with a dark glare that chilled him. "I am aware that you are wont to muck around and play games but don't lie to me. Ever! I returned your life to you and I can just as easily take it away."

"Uh, yeah," Axel muttered, starting to sweat a bit. "I got it memorised, Miss."

* * *

Amu sighed wearily as she made her way to the next room. The stairway had been so weird. Every time she went through a door she would wind up on a floating staircase, detached from anything else except the next door. The opponents weren't as difficult as the stronger Heartless she had faced in Twilight Town but to fight so many of them was draining her. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it to stop the ever multiplying brooms advancing on her.

"I'm so tired!" she moaned. "I haven't had time to rest properly since I last fought."

"Amu also had hardly any sleep," Miki added. Sora and Su nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry Amu!" Ran said happily. "Look there!" She pointed at a green door with a new finish like the elevator door in the entranceway. "This is where the elevator lets off, so we must be at the top now! And there's another door too! I bet that old wizard is in there, right?"

"Yeah, that looks familiar," Sora said, glancing at the blue door decorated with a moon and two stars. "Amu, you'll be home in no time!"

Amu just nodded but the mere thought of getting home seemed to give her the strength to push herself off the door and keep going. She stumbled towards the blue door and grabbed the handle, pulling it open and staggering into the next room. This room was round and looked like a medieval study. There were little shelves placed around the room laden with neatly arranged books and a large blue chest with a large lock. Amu was very curious to know what was inside. The windows at the back of the room were the same star and moon shapes that had been on the door and in the middle of the room was a large, intimidating desk with a large, intimidating chair that had a large, intimidating man with a silver beard, thick eyebrows and a pointed hat sitting in it. Amu squeaked.

"Ah... you must be Amu Hinamori," the old man said with slow, deliberate words.

"Um... it's Hinamori Amu... or do you say it backwards like the kids in Twilight Town too? And how do you know my name?" Amu replied. She instantly froze. _"Why the hell did I go and say something like that?"_

The old man just chuckled. "Do not be afraid of me. I am not angry at you for anything. My name is Yen Sid; I am a sorcerer and master of this tower. As for how I know you... well, I've been expecting you."

"You've been expecting Amu?" Miki asked.

"Indeed. You look exhausted. Perhaps a little healing is in order before I begin my explanation." With a wave of his hand Amu was suddenly surrounded by large, floating blossoms and leaves and petals swirling around her in a luminous green light. All of her wounds and aches were alleviated almost instantly with the feeling that she was receiving a warm, gentle massage. Yen Sid nodded when the magic had finished its work. "Very good. As for why you are here, I suppose you have already learned of the existence of the Heartless and the Nobodies."

Amu nodded. "I know them... but I don't know exactly what they are."

"The Heartless are just what their name suggests: creatures with no heart. They thrive in the darkness, feeding off the hearts of those who allow darkness to influence them and are the product of those who become possessed by the darkness and hence lose their hearts. The Nobodies also have no heart. Unlike the Heartless they are created when a body with a strong will loses its heart. The will forces the body to act of its own accord without the heart to give it emotions and a purpose. They harass people, intent on stealing hearts to regain their own, but they only invent more Heartless by doing this."

"Oh, how sad ~desu," Su piped up with a sympathetic frown.

"It is quite an awful and meaningless existence indeed," Yen Sid agreed. He waved his hand over his desk and a little circle of light appeared. A transparent beam from the circle shot up to the ceiling and a rotating image of a card with a jagged top appeared. The card was blank. "Now, on to more urgent matters."

"That card!" Ran exclaimed.

"Yeah, I remember it," Amu said. "That's the kind of card that transported me to Twilight Town!"

"Indeed it is," Yen Sid affirmed. "These cards are, in fact, keys that open portals into different worlds."

"I figured as much," Miki interrupted.

"Currently, these cards are in the possession of the Nobodies who were once known as Organisation XIII. However, these Nobodies are mere shells of what they once were." Yen Sid conjured up another circle, this one larger and it was on the floor in front of Amu. In it appeared a life-size man wearing a black cloak with the hood drawn up to hide his face. Amu took an instinctive step backwards, failing to disguise her unease. "Their will to regain their hearts has not been lost, however, their bodies are not their own. An old and evil sorceress by the name of Maleficent has taken them under her mantle as her tools."

Amu gasped. "Not Maleficent... as in, the new teacher at Seiyo Academy who started taking my class?"

"I am not sure of that, but if she is based in your world I can think of a plausible reason for her to do so. Sora is a Shugo Chara without a heart to which he is attached, Roxas is a Nobody who – despite what he thinks – has not completely lost his heart, and you are a girl with the ability to unlock hearts. It is hard to tell what Maleficent plans to do but I imagine she wishes to use these three keys to summon the greatest key in existence: the Keyblade." The man in the cloak disappeared and was replaced with the image of a large, silver Keyblade with golden knuckle-bows and hanging from the end was a keychain with a symbol of three circles. Amu had no idea what the symbol meant but it sort of looked like a mouse... in a weird and extremely simplified way. "With the Keyblade, Maleficent can open the door to the greatest heart in existence; the Heart of All Hearts: Kingdom Hearts."

"But what's Amu supposed to do?" Sora asked.

"If Amu is one of the keys to open this door, she can also close it," Yen Sid explained. "You, Sora and Roxas are paramount to putting a stop to Maleficent's malevolent plans."

Amu put a hand to her chest. "But isn't that a gamble? I mean, it makes everything fifty-fifty; win or lose. There's no fail-safe if we lose the bet."

"Amu, I believe in your strength and you are not alone. You have the support of many friends, including your own Shugo Chara. Now, would you like to be escorted home?"

"Home? As in, back to my family and friends? Yes! Please take me home!"

"Very well." Yen Sid picked up the card he'd had suspended in the transparent beam of light and with a flick of the wrist and a touch of magic he floated it towards the door. It stuck to the wood and glowed. The handle turned and the door swung open by itself but behind it was nothing but glowing white space. Amu hesitated to step into it. "Don't be afraid."

Amu gulped, clutched the handle of her basket and closed her eyes tightly. One courageous step into the light was all it took.

* * *

When she opened her eyes she felt as though she was in a vaguely familiar place. She blinked a few times and readjusted to the bright sunlight, the brightly coloured flowers and the bright, lush, green garden. After a while she was able to easily recognise where she was.

"We made it home!" Ran exclaimed.

"Not only that, we made it to school," Miki pointed out.

Amu had never been so relieved to see the Royal Garden. However, when she turned around she noticed that the schoolyard was empty. She wondered if she had arrived back on a weekend and no one was there but that couldn't be right. She counted the days that had passed and if she had left on Wednesday and spent two nights it could only be Friday. Then the bell rang. Given a good five minutes, people began to file out of the building and take up stations under trees, on the stairs or on benches. It was too early for school to end, so it must have been lunchtime.

"Everything looks normal," Miki muttered. Sora flittered around, too intrigued and impressed by the aromatic garden to be focusing on the school.

"But wait, if it's lunchtime now, then that means..." Amu realised. Her eyes widened and she screamed. "I'm late for school! _Really_ late! And I'm not even in school uniform! I'm gonna be in so much trouble!"

"Amu, calm down ~desu," Su said soothingly as Amu started to dance around frantically.

"Yeah, you'll be alright," Sora added, floating back to the group. "Just sneak out while no one is looking and pretend you weren't even here."

"Amu-chi!!"

"Hinamori-san?"

Amu whipped around and gaped. Standing in the entrance to the Royal Garden were all other Guardians staring at her. She started to sweat, wondering what kind of excuse she could come up with. In the end all she could muster was:

"Uh... hi guys."

"Amu-chi is back!" Yaya exclaimed, excitedly leaping onto Amu's shoulders. "Were you feeling sick?"

"That would be odd because she looks very healthy; not like she just came back from an absence due to illness," Rima observed.

"H-hey!" Amu retorted. "People can come back after an illness looking radiant too!"

"More importantly, why aren't you in school uniform?" Kairi enquired sternly. Amu sighed. That was just the kind of thing he would ask.

"Uh... well... it's kind of a long story..."

"So you weren't sick," Rima guessed. Judging by Amu's exaggerated reaction, she'd hit the nail on the board.

"Well, you can tell us all about it now," Tadase said charmingly. "We came here to try to catch up on some of the Guardian work we couldn't get done in the past two days after school since you were away."

Amu stared at him disbelievingly. _"Since when do I ever get work to do around here?"_

"Let's have some cookies! Yaya brought lots of cookies with chocolate chips just for today," Yaya said.

"My, my! Who might this lowly commoner be?" Kiseki's regal voice bellowed out. "Another servant to add to my assembly?"

"I'm not your servant," said Sora, although to everyone except Amu and her charas, the voice was unfamiliar. The two were hovering over a bush with flowering hot pink blossoms with Kiseki 'backed' by his 'army' of 'minions' (the other charas were hovering around).

"Who's that?" Tadase asked.

"Ah! Amu-chi got another Shugo Chara? No fair!" Yaya whined.

"Actually... he's not my chara," Amu explained. "He's, um... it's all part of the long story, so, er... I guess I'd better start talking."

* * *

'The Long Story' really was a long story. Amu only got to about halfway and had to finish it after school with the other Guardians listening intently and Kairi was, of course, taking notes. She told them everything from the night Axel first attacked her with the Heartless, to Twilight Town and the tower of the sorcerer Yen Sid. When she finished talking she looked at the expressions of her friends. Kairi was still writing notes, so he was impassive. Tadase and Yaya were both wide-eyed and though Rima had been interested for the first part, she now looked like she didn't believe a word of it.

"You don't expect us to believe that, do you?" she asked. Amu's jaw dropped.

"But it's true! Sora came from Twilight Town!"

"Actually, I didn't come from Twilight Town," Sora corrected, sitting in the middle of the table passing a ball between himself and Kusu-kusu. "I remember being in a different place with a really nice beach and a raft before I was in Twilight Town, although to be honest I don't remember why I left that place, what that place was called or how I ended up in that pod in Twilight Town."

"Do you at least remember who your owner is?" Kairi asked, looking up as he finished writing. "Amu said something about you telling her that you were a 'have-been' self. What do you mean by that?"

"I can't remember his name, but I can recall that he looked exactly like me."

The Guardians exchanged glances. If that was true that was very strange. They'd never come across a Shugo Chara that looked exactly like its owner.

"I think..." Tadase started. Everyone turned their attention to him. "I think that this requires some investigation, even though Hinamori-san's story sounds a little bit farfetched."

Amu pouted.

"I agree," Kairi stated, pushing his glasses up. "Amu did mention that there was a relationship between the X-Eggs and the Heartless and Nobodies. An inquiry into this relationship my further our quest for the Embryo, or deepen our understanding of Easter's schemes."

"_Although,"_ he thought, letting the light shine into his glasses to hide his eyes. Musashi could see that there was something on his mind. _"I'm actually worried. I don't know what to make of this situation. If this does have something to do with Easter, what does that mean for my sister?"_

"That's a good idea," Tadase agreed. He glanced at all of the Guardians. "Do we all agree that we should investigate?"

Rima sighed. "I guess we should, since Kairi's explanation sounds so logical."

Amu nodded and everyone turned to Yaya for her answer but she wasn't paying attention. She was staring at Amu intently. Amu blinked.

"Yaya-chan, is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Amu-chi's Humpty Lock isn't shiny anymore," Yaya replied. "I wonder why."

Amu looked down, lifting the lock so that she could get a better look. Her eyes widened. The normally shimmering crystals in the Humpty Lock were dull.

"Wh-what?" she gasped. "Why did that happen?"

* * *

Kuukai sighed. He was always the one who was forced to go out and run errands for his big brothers. He paid the cashier and left the mini-mart, hoping that he'd remembered the right things this time. He started the journey home, passing the park and noticing that someone was sitting on the swing all alone. The area was deserted this late at night and the light from the park lamppost only barely lit the whole area but it was sufficient for Kuukai to recognise the person sitting there, still in their uniform.

"Oi! Roxas!" he called out, jogging over with his plastic bag and sitting down on the swing next to his new friend. Roxas turned to him, looking impassive as always. "What are you doing out this late? And you're still in uniform. How come?"

"Beats me," Roxas replied, effectively confusing Kuukai.

After a moment of thinking about that, Kuukai laughed. "You really are a funny guy. Hey, you know if you're here because there's something wrong with the family at your place, you could always come and stay the night with me."

"You must be a kind person then," Roxas said, another somewhat confusing answer, "but for various reasons you shouldn't be concerned with me, one of them being that I have no family troubles at my place since I live alone."

"What? You live by yourself?" Kuukai exclaimed. "But you're only in your first year of middle school, like me!"

"Technically, if you consider my age, I'm actually in my second year of high school."

Kuukai's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "What? Are you serious? Then why are you enrolled in a middle school? How old are you really?"

"I'm sixteen, I'll be seventeen sometime this year but I can't remember my birthday." Roxas stood up. "As for why I'm in middle school, I don't know. I don't really know what I'm doing here. You should stop being my friend."

Roxas started to walk away but Kuukai jumped up and grabbed him by the arm. "Just hold it! Now I know there's something wrong. Why won't you tell me?"

"Yeah, Roxas, why won't you tell him?"

Kuukai spun around upon hearing the new, suave voice. Roxas turned around calmly. Sitting in the swing Kuukai had once occupied was a very tall man wearing a black hooded cloak. Kuukai had the familiar sensation of a fire being nearby. The man's hood was drawn down, revealing vibrant, red, spiky hair and two green eyes with small triangular tattoos beneath them.

"What? Who are you?" Kuukai inquired. "And how do you know Roxas?"

"Name's Axel, got it memorised, chump?" Axel replied. "And as for how I know Roxas, that isn't something you need to be concerned about."

Axel's eyes widened slightly and he titled his head slightly to look past Kuukai and Roxas. Kuukai turned to see what he was looking at when he heard a strange, deep synthetic sound like a warping sound-effect. Whatever it was, it was still in the darkness but Kuukai could still see the slight movement. It stepped into the light, revealing its humanoid shape, black, hooded cloak and a heavy tome. It was easy to see that it was a man but he was very small, most probably a bit shorter than Roxas. He pulled his hood down, revealing short silver hair with a thick fringe that was combed over the right eye. His left eye was dark blue.

Axel growled. "What do you want now, Zexion?"

"I was sent by Maleficent to make sure that you were on task," Zexion replied in the same emotionless tone Roxas used. "She'll be upset if I return now and report that you were just playing around again."

"I'm not playing around this time," Axel replied indignantly.

"Then why are you here chasing Roxas?"

"I'm not! I'm here to get the Angel, but I have an approach. I'm gonna take out this one first." Axel pointed at Kuukai.

"M-me?" Kuukai gasped. "But what did I do?"

"I'm just a little worried, that's all," Axel answered. "You've been hanging around Roxas a lot so you could be a hindrance."

"I told you that you should stop being my friend," Roxas said, taking a marble off his bag and holding it out in front of him in his fist. It started to glow blue. The magical energy from the glow spread to his fist and down his arm until it engulfed his entire body. His silhouette changed. With a small burst the layer of blue magic blew away and he appeared transformed into an outfit similar to that of the 'Red Hero' but coloured blue and decorated with blue flames in place of the fleur-de-lis.

"Oh? You're getting serious now, Roxas?" Axel said, standing up and taking a battle stance.

Roxas stepped forward, looking like he was about to summon some kind of weapon in his hands but he stumbled. He looked down. A pool of darkness had collected around his feet and he was sinking into it. Kuukai could only stare in horror as Roxas sunk into the black abyss as quickly as someone just falling into a pool of water.

"If that's the case," Zexion said, "I'll take care of Roxas. You just focus on your 'approach'." He didn't fail to notice Axel's irritated expression. He created a portal of darkness around himself, similar to the one he'd created beneath Roxas, and disappeared without a trace.

Kuukai turned back to Axel. The redhead spat on the ground, clearly displeased. "I guess it's just you and me now, chump."

"Don't call me that!" Kuukai snapped. "Daichi, Character Transformation!"

"Right!" Daichi complied, causing Kuukai to change into his Sky Jack form.

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, right and what are you going to do like that?"

He summoned a ball of fire in each hand and set the perimeter of the park alight. The flames climbed as high as the houses nearby and seared everything around them. Kuukai jumped on his flying board, flying out of the range of the flames quickly. He hovered in the cool night air above the fire. He looked up when he heard the synthetic sound again. A dark portal opened above him and Axel fell out wielding a pair of red chakrams.

"You're not the only one who can do cool tricks, got it memorised?" Axel taunted, swinging at Kuukai with one chakram as he descended. Kuukai dodged it. Axel just managed to make a small tear in Kuukai's jacket. He spun around in midair and threw his chakrams. They spun through the air quickly and with perfect accuracy. Kuukai lurched to the side and dodged one but couldn't avoid the other. It sliced through his right shoulder. Axel disappeared into another dark portal.

"Kuukai, we need to get away from this guy," Daichi said. "He's got a really dangerous vibe; he might be too dangerous for us to handle."

"Yeah, I agree," Kuukai panted, holding his wound closed with one hand. He steered his board in a random direction and took off at full speed. Losing Axel would be his first priority.

* * *

"Okay, why are we doing this again?" Miki asked sceptically. Amu was skulking around the streets near her home and ducked into an alleyway when a car drove by. "You look like you're about to go and burgle someone."

"This is how we're starting our investigation of the Heartless ~desu," Su reminded her, leaning against a wall next to Ran as though they were on a stealth mission. "Obviously the Heartless are creatures of the darkness and creatures of the darkness always appear at night, don't they?"

"You don't even have your parents' permission to do this," Miki pointed out. "What if they find out?"

"I'm pretending to be asleep," Amu explained, checking around the corner to see if anyone else was coming. "I'm sure they'll just leave 'me' alone."

"They might check under your blankets and find out that you just stuffed pillows and puzzle boxes under there."

"Don't be such a downer," Sora said, giving the blue chara a nudge. "We have to start somewhere, even if this gets us nowhere."

"But walking around in the dark this late at night is dangerous!" Miki snapped. "Amu could get attacked by someone or molested." They all shuddered at the thought.

There was a clatter and a thud somewhere behind them in the alleyway. Amu and the charas shrieked. Amu whirled around and flicked on the large, black torch she was holding. "Alright, who was that?"

"M-maybe Miki was right," Ran said, holding onto Su. "We should just go home."

The torchlight flickered over a figure crouched in the alleyway. Amu moved the beam back to focus on it. Her eyes widened. "Kuukai?"

She rushed over to his side. He was still maintaining his Character Transformation but he looked worse for wear. He'd already sustained two serious injuries, one on his right shoulder and the other on his left side. There were other minor cuts and bruises and areas that looked like they'd been burnt.

"Kuukai, this is terrible! What happened? We need to call the hospital."

"That won't be necessary," Axel sneered, stepping out of another dark portal in the shadows, "since he won't be living very much longer anyway."

"What? You again? Are you after Sora?" Amu growled, standing in front of Kuukai to shield him from the Nobody.

"Yes and no," Axel replied. "This time I've got special orders. As part of that, I'm taking out that guy first."

"What's Kuukai ever done to you?"

"Nothing that personal, I just wanna be rid of him."

"I won't let you hurt him! My own heart: Unlock!"

Amu tried to Character Transform but nothing came from her dulled Humpty Lock. She stared at herself in shock. "What's going on? Why isn't anything happening?"

"So I take it you aren't going to get in the way?" Axel sneered. "Then I might as well just kill two birds with one stone and – _Shazzam!_ – mission complete."

Axel held a hand out in front of himself and supported it with the other. A large, orange fireball burst into life in his palm. Beneath it little tendrils of darkness were also being summoned. They crept into the fire, turning it black. Amu gasped. What could she do? She couldn't run. Running away would mean leaving Kuukai behind and even if she did, Axel's ability to teleport would just make it too easy for him to catch her. She couldn't transform for some reason. Axel grinned.

"I'll see you on the other side, Angel."

He charged forward, his fireball in his outstretched arm. Amu put her arms up and looked away but she knew it wouldn't do any good. There was nothing else she could do.

"Amu!"

Amu opened her eyes at the calling of her name. Kuukai forced himself to his feet and shielded her only a second before Axel hit. The attack burned through Kuukai's chest and engulfed him. Amu screamed in horror while the flames turned green and rose into the sky like a pillar. The shadows under his clothes began to spread. They covered his entire body and started to move of their own accord. They peeled themselves off his body, creating another body that was identical to Kuukai's, but it had yellow, glowing eyes. The flames disappeared wherever the black shadow twin managed to peel itself away. Finally it had become a separate body. Kuukai collapsed to his knees and slumped to the ground. Amu screamed.

"Kuukai!" She also collapsed to her knees with tears streaming down her face. "H-how? Wh-why? Why did you do this? I don't understand..." she sobbed with one hand over her mouth. She took that hand away, making a fist instead, and screamed at Axel in fury: "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! Why do you have to do this to me? Why did you have to do this to Kuukai?"

The Humpty Lock was still dull but Amu kept trying to unlock her heart. The efforts were futile.

"Aw, man, if I had a heart I might feel pity for you," Axel said. "Oh well, I guess I don't even have to bother now. Anti-Kuukai will be able to take care of you easily."

The Kuukai-shadow crouched to the ground. It looked like it was about to pounce. Amu put her head in her hands, not knowing what to do.

"Amu, wait!" Sora said, dashing in front of her. "Don't give up! Maybe I can help you this time. Amu's heart: Unlock!"

He put his hands to the Humpty Lock and it suddenly glowed brightly again. In a flash of silver light, Amu was transformed into the same Final Form she'd used in Twilight Town. Axel gaped at her.

"What?! You can use His power too?" He backed away. "Crap, that sure turns things around... on the other hand..." he smirked to himself as a plan formulated in his head. "Okay, let's make a deal."

"I'm in no mood for making deals with you!" Amu shouted, pulling out her gunblades and charging at him. Anti-Kuukai leaped forward, intercepting her attack.

"Well, it isn't so much a deal as much as a challenge. I know I could still take you on right now but I have an ulterior motive which you're going fulfil very nicely."

"I'm not doing anything for you!"

Amu took a single step back to dislodge her weapons. Anti-Kuukai slashed at her with clawed hands that she didn't even realise he had. She had to bend backwards to evade it. She put her hands on the ground and flipped her legs up to kick the shadow creature in the chin with her heels. It didn't seem largely affected by that. She landed, picked up her guns and fired a few shots at Anti-Kuukai. The first five hit their mark. Then the shadow flitted out of the way with amazing agility and darted forwards, catching Amu by surprise. It raised both hands to attack. Amu blocked the attack by spearing its hands with the gunblades.

"Well then you'll need every opportunity you can get to defeat me, right?" Axel said, strolling up to the stalemated fighters and slotting a card into the back of Anti-Kuukai. It slid in as though there really was a slot there. "If you defeat Anti-Kuukai, that card he's got will take you to the next destination, got it memorised? I'm sure you do. Well, see ya."

Axel disappeared into a dark portal.

"No! Wait a minute!" Amu screeched. She kicked Anti-Kuukai out of the way and pulled her weapons free. While the creature was still open she ran in, stabbed it through the head and chest and fired her weapons. The head and chest blew open in a cloud of darkness and the rest of the shadow became a cloud of ashes that disintegrated into nothing. A large, pink heart was released and it floated upwards into the night sky before disappearing in a flash of bright light.

Sora was dispelled from the Humpty Lock, which was still rather dull, and Amu reverted back to her normal appearance. For a moment she was still so enraged that she couldn't even move. Then she heard a small groan behind her. She turned around. Kuukai was pushing himself to his feet having already reverted back to his normal attire as well.

"Kuukai! You're okay!" Amu exclaimed, running over and falling to her knees so that she could hug him. He didn't return it. In fact, he pushed her away. Amu stared at him in confusion. Something was wrong. His normally bright hair was a couple of shades darker and his cheery eyes were blank. In his hand he held a Heart's Egg. Amu recognised it as Daichi's. "Kuukai, what happened to you all of a sudden? What happened to Daichi?"

"It's cold," Kuukai merely said, holding the egg out for her to feel.

Amu gulped. She hesitantly reached out to touch the blue egg. Immediately she pulled her hand back as if she'd been burnt. It was cold.

* * *

Enjoy the cliffhanger. I think now I'll only be three weeks with the next update so I can take the hiatus notice off my profile (I don't know why I put it up there in the first place. Obviously when I decided to go on hiatus I wasn't planning to stick to it).


	8. Connected to the Heart

This is embarrassingly overdue and for that I apologise. I haven't been much in the fanfiction spirit since my holidays started, which is part of the reason why I decided to keep this chapter a little bit short. I don't think it's exactly writer's block - it may be some form of writer's block, though - I just have these little imagination gaps: I know what I want to happen next, but I don't know how I get from where we are currently to what happens next.

Also, I've made a little bit of a map and I've decided to keep this rather short. It's not going to be a great adventure like Sora's in the real game. Excluding Twilight Town there are only six more worlds lined up, including one random cameo world, plus two random little mini-worlds. Otherwise it will take me absolutely forever. I also dread to write action scenes so I don't want to drag it out too long. I don't think I'll be making many of the other worlds as long as the Twilight Town arc either... at least I hope I don't but things always tend to take on a life of their own and get out of hand.

Enjoy this chapter: My Christmas resolution to upload this before Dec 25.

* * *

Amu leaned forward and put her arms around Kuukai, holding him in an embrace. He still wasn't responding to her touch. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder as tears started to gather on her eyelashes and she cried. Kuukai didn't move or say anything. The Shugo Chara didn't really know what to do. What could they do? Ran felt her throat tighten. There must have been something... there! The card. Anti-Kuukai dropped it when it disappeared. Ran floated down to pick it up and took it to her owner.

"Amu..." she said in a quiet voice so unlike her usual demeanour. She held the card to the pink-haired girl who just turned slightly to look at it disdainfully. On it was another picture of a sphere covered in pink and magenta chequers with a heart-shaped topiary arch in front of a shining white castle like the kind in a storybook.

"Why should I go there?" Amu snapped. "Axel's just gonna be there waiting to do more horrible things to me."

"But if you don't go, he'll do horrible things to other people instead," Miki said. "Like he just did to Kuukai..."

Amu sat up straight and pushed Kuukai to sit more upright by his shoulders. He pocketed his heart's egg and stood up. "I should go home. I have big brothers, don't I?"

Amu stood up to stop him before he could walk away. "You can't just walk home with injuries like that! What am I going to do? I don't have my phone..."

"Amu..."

She looked up. In the entrance of the alleyway was a tall, dark figure carrying what appeared to be a violin case and had a fairy-sized creature hovering beside its head. Her eyes widened. "Ikuto...?"

"We saw huge flames ~nya!" Yoru explained in a loud voice. "And it was so weird! Everything was standing still."

Amu and the charas looked at him as thought they didn't know what they were talking about. When Kuukai tried to move again, Amu snapped back to attention. "Ikuto! Call an ambulance!"

* * *

Axel strode into the dining room of the old mansion. Two small chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a series of tall windows on one side faced towards the town and the lovely, green garden in the backyard. The room was fixed with plush red carpet and had a large fireplace with a gold carving on the back plate. The mantelpiece was adorned with little, coloured orbs with various types of dragons wound around them and a clock with a small face that ticked quietly. On the long dining table that would seat twenty there were only two seated there. Both were wearing the same black cloaks but with the hoods drawn down. One was a fairly stocky man with blond hair and blue eyes and a short beard and moustache. He had five silver piercings in his ears, most of them helix piercings. The other man looked old, mainly due to the disfiguring effect of the scars running across his face. He had long hair in grey and black streaks that was tied in a ponytail and wore an eye patch over his left eye. While the blond shuffled a deck of cards and tried to coax the other into playing a game with him the other refused and chose to just sit idly and drink something that looked like one of every ingredient in the kitchen had been tossed into the blender. The grey-haired man looked up first.

"Welcome back, dude," he said in a casual tone with a voice sounding like a young surfer. "What happened? Fail?"

"I'm working on it," Axel gave as an explanation.

"You should have finished it," the blond said with a British accent. "Even with my time magic to make sure didn't run into any inconvenient disturbances you still couldn't manage to capture a weak little girl? Well, I guess that's just your luck. Care to play a game?"

"Yeah, I'll show you what my luck is really like," Axel challenged, sitting down across from the blond.

"You're an idiot," the grey-haired man said over the rim of his glass. "No one can beat the Gambler of Fate at a card game."

"Maybe you can't, Xigbar," Axel retorted as the blond began to deal out the cards. "But I'm feeling really lucky right now."

Xigbar laughed. "I'm going to enjoy watching Luxord take those words right out of your mouth, kiddo."

"Pick up your hand," Luxord said, pointing at the pile of cards in front of Axel. He picked them up, looked at them and mentally cursed. Luxord must cheat all the time; how else would Axel always end up with a bad hand every time he played against the guy?

The door slammed open sending vibrations through the room that rattled the windows and caused the decorative orbs on the mantelpiece to wobble. All three occupants looked up to find another dressed in a black robe with the hood drawn up. They could tell she was female by the curvaceous figure and the high-heeled boots that only she wore. Her lips could be seen in the lighter shadows on the bottom of her face: she was scowling.

"I have a bone to pick with you, Axel," she snarled.

"Larxene?" Axel said. His eyes widened and he was starting to sweat. "What's got you all up in a tizzy?"

"Your frank idiocy, that's what!" Larxene growled, summoning four kunai in one hand with a flash of lightning.

"You're just jealous because Maleficent chose to put me on the frontline and you're in back-up," Axel muttered, fanning himself with his cards, "so you gotta stand back and watch me have all the fun."

She threw a lightning fast kunai at him. Axel flinched, thinking that it was about to hit him in the face but it became wedged in the wooden edge of the chair he was sitting at. He gulped. Larxene wasn't scowling at him anymore so he guessed that seeing him squirm even just a little bit had cheered her up and calmed her down.

"How can you not realise something so obvious," she continued. "While chasing your prey Luxord's time magic should have caused all other activity in your vicinity to stop, right?"

"Don't say 'prey', it sounds so animalistic," Luxord suggested.

"Yeah, I call him my opponent, got it memorised?" Axel added. "And we already know that the fairy girl is special. So what if a simple, low-level time spell couldn't stop her?"

"Yeah? Then what about the other guy?"

Luxord, Xigbar and Axel all stared at her.

"There was another guy?" Axel asked. "You mean, another guy who didn't stop?"

"Yeah, that's right," Larxene confirmed, chucking another kunai at Axel, this time aimed closer. Axel cringed, thinking that this one was really going to hit but it was instead wedged into the upholstery millimetres off from the first one. "But if you didn't notice that it means you probably weren't on the ball, huh? I spoke to Maleficent about it, you know."

"You did, huh?" Xigbar responded. "And what does she think?"

"Aw crap..." Axel whined, slumping. "Thanks a lot, Larxene. I'm gonna be in deep shit now."

"Glad to hear it. Anyway, she's taking Axel off the roster. You're not going to be leaving this mansion at all until further notice, redhead."

"What?!" Axel exclaimed, slamming his cards face down.

Luxord chuckled. "I believe you were saying something earlier about feeling lucky?"

"Shut up, you! Why did she do that? Oh... wait, don't answer that, I think I already know why," Axel looked up with a look of dread. "And? Did she put you out there instead?"

Larxene growled and threw a third kunai. Axel yelped and snapped the hand resting on his cards away as the charged kunai stabbed the table through the cardboard where Axel's hand had once been.

"Oi! My cards!" Luxord exclaimed with an annoyed tone.

"No! She didn't recruit me! She recruited Demyx! Of all people!"

Xigbar chuckled. "Oh well, the only thing you can do is roll with it. I ain't the least bit surprised that she picked Demyx though. He may be a spineless, bumbling pacifist but unlike anyone else in this organisation, he follows orders and carries out tasks the way they're meant to be done."

"What are you saying?" Larxene snapped.

"Nuthin'," Xigbar drawled.

As Larxene and Xigbar continued to bicker while Luxord watched on amused Axel looked down at the kunai stabbed through one particular card in his hand. He grabbed the knife. It had lost its charge when it made impact and left a burnt out scar on the table. Axel pulled the knife out of the table, finding that the card it had pierced was stuck to it. He turned it over to see what it was: the two of hearts. He smirked, plucking the card off the blade and stowing it away in his coat while Luxord wasn't looking. Maybe when Maleficent had chosen Demyx to take up the fight instead she hadn't counted on he and Axel being good friends. Demyx would be on his side no matter what orders she gave.

* * *

There was the distinct disinfectant smell of the hospital everywhere, leaking into the waiting room from the wards and surgeries behind the closed swinging doors. It had been nearly two hours and Amu had heard nothing. Maybe in the dark she couldn't see the full extent of Kuukai's injuries and he was a lot more badly injured than she thought. The clock on the waiting room wall struck one in the morning. Amu sat on a waiting room chair against the wall with her heels up on the edge of the seat and her knees hugged close to her chest. What was she to do? Kuukai had lost his human reason and emotion – how was she supposed to tell other people that? Then there was Maleficent. If the sorceress Yen Sid referred to really was her new teacher... Amu shuddered. She dreaded having to go to school later that morning.

Something black was held in front of her face. She blinked and focused on it, recognising it as a mobile phone. She looked up to the person offering it. Ikuto wasn't looking at her.

"It's already really late," he said as an explanation. He turned his head slightly to stare at her. "Even if you snuck out of the house or something, you should call your parents and tell them you're here."

"Do you tell your parents when you go out at night?" Amu asked bitterly. He quickly looked away again and Amu knew that was a 'no'. She pushed his hand away. She didn't want to talk to anyone. So why was Ikuto still here?

Ikuto sat down on a chair two seats away from her. He didn't know what happened but he could tell that Amu would need space for now. It was probably best for him to just leave in that case. So why wasn't he leaving? He was watching her. She stared at the corner around which the nurses had wheeled Kuukai away on a stretcher for treatment. She lifted her head up when a blonde nurse with a short bob cut came back around the corner but slumped disappointedly when the nurse went to talk to a disabled man in a wheelchair.

She sighed and leaned her head against her knees, keeping her eyes on the corner. One arm let go of her legs and fell loosely to her side with her hand resting on the seat of the chair next to her. Ikuto stared at it. The fingers twitched unconsciously; grasping for something. Ikuto leaned over and put his hand over hers. Her hand grasped his fingers – probably a sub-conscious action on her part – and he could feel them trembling even though she was keeping a firm grip.

Amu blinked. She could feel something warm and turned around to find Ikuto holding her hand gently. She blushed and squeaked, snatching her hand back as though it had touched a hot stove. "Wh-what are you doing, you pervert!?" she exclaimed. "Holding my hand all lover-like..."

Ikuto smirked. "You're the one who reached out to me first. I thought you wanted to hold hands."

"If I wanted to hold your hand I would have told you!" Amu snapped. She crossed her arms and looked away with a pout.

"Well they say that actions speak louder than words," Ikuto continued to tease.

"I can't believe you! You're taking advantage of me at a difficult time," she whined. Ikuto glanced at her. At first he thought he had genuinely hurt her feelings but when he saw her face he could see some life returning to her eyes and cheeks. The slightly perverted but familiar bickering had cheered her up a bit. Ikuto sighed with relief. Yoru floated up next to him with a sly expression and meowed. Ikuto pinched his chara's cheek.

A male nurse with short black hair came around the corner but Amu had forgotten that she was supposed to be watching it until the nurse called her: "Hinamori-san?"

She jumped out of her seat and ran up to the nurse. Her hands were clasped at her chest praying for good news. "Is Kuukai okay?"

"Souma-san will be alright now. Some of his wounds were deep but most were superficial. He had a lot of them though. We've cleaned and stitched the wounds and treated him for infections but he's lost a lot of blood too so he'll need a lot of rest now. You'll understand that we're only letting family members see him at this time, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay," Amu nodded. "I'm just glad he's safe." She glanced at Ikuto. "I guess I'd better go home. There's nothing else that I can really do. Thanks for your help, though," she said to the nurse.

Ikuto stood up as she turned to leave and followed her out of the building. She stopped on the steps just before the car park, making Ikuto stand still and stare at her in surprise.

"Ikuto," she said quietly, clasping her hands behind her back. "Thank-you for staying." She jumped down the last two stairs and took off at a run until she got to the end of the car park. A chara change with Ran allowed her to jump from building to building to get home faster.

Ikuto had nothing better to do other than go home and sleep or resume his nightwalking. He was so worried about her. There was something suspicious about finding her in an alleyway with her friend in that state. Green flames were the only clue he had but it was evident enough to be a good starting point.

* * *

Amu could barely keep her eyes open the next day at school not even for the fear of Maleficent. That new teacher had a dark, fearsome aura following her everywhere she went. Tadase assured her that it was really nothing but when he looked so uneasy whenever Maleficent spoke to him or approached him there was no way Amu could believe him. That class pet also had people on edge. Everyone broke out into a cold sweat at the thought of having to take it home for the summer and the holidays were coming precariously close – next week, in fact. The classroom was suddenly a very depressing place to be.

When the bell tolled for the end of the school day Amu packed up as quickly as possible, wanting to get away from Maleficent as soon as possible. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and the class was filing out of the room in record time. All of a sudden, Maleficent called out over the noise of several people moving at once: "Wait a minute, Hinamori-san. I need to speak to you."

Amu froze and turned around. Maleficent beckoned for her to return. She turned to Tadase, hoping he would help her somehow. He just smiled.

"I'll wait outside the classroom for you," he promised, following the rest of the class out the door. The other students looked back curiously, wondering what could possibly transpire between Amu and the new teacher. Once the classroom had been completely cleared Maleficent smiled and sat down, gesturing for Amu to pull up a chair and do the same but Amu stubbornly refused. She wished the charas were here to help her if she needed it; they were away playing in the Royal Garden... or at least she hoped they were just doing that. The air began to prickle as though some strange charge was surging through it. She stood rigid.

"What happened?" she hissed, knowing that something must have happened to cause that strange surge. Maleficent's eyes seemed to narrow and her smile grew.

"Oh, so you can feel it?" she observed. "You're more perceptive than I originally thought; I'm not dealing with some typical little girl here, am I? But you haven't seemed to notice that time has stopped."

Amu blinked and turned to the window. A bird flying past was frozen in mid-flap.

"We won't be disturbed."

"You're showing me your true colours already?" Amu asked, turning back to Maleficent, trying to use her tougher outer character. "That's bad form if you ask me."

"Well, I don't stand to gain or lose anything and I most certainly am not so afraid of mere children that I would hide my identity for preservation's sake."

Amu took a few steps back, knowing that she had an escape route; she could run if she wanted to. However, she had the gut feeling that Maleficent was not a person she could run from. If she was to prevail at all, she would stand her ground until the end.

"You're a very useful little girl," Maleficent continued. "And I need you for my plans to become successful. You've already met my subordinate Axel on a couple of occasions. Actually, he's what I want to talk to you about."

"So you're the boss, huh?" Amu snapped, edging towards the door. Maleficent waved her finger and the door slammed shut. "Axel takes orders from you."

"He's supposed to but he doesn't. It's been extremely frustrating for the short time that I've been here; he turns foolproof simple tasks into arduous missions. However, I've thought about it and I've decided that I quite like Axel's approach. What would make it perfect for my own purposes was if I took it several steps further than Axel ever planned to go. Hinamori-san, you are going to bring the Keyblade to me."

The witch pointed at Amu, snatching her book bag with magic and opening it while it was suspended in midair. The jagged-topped card floated out of the bag and tacked itself to the classroom door. Amu jumped up to grab her bag by the strap. She dug her heels in as the bag was dragged through the air towards the door. The door opened of its own accord, revealing a bright, shining light behind it. Amu gasped and let go of her bag as it hurtled into the light.

"I'm not going!" Amu yelled defiantly.

"Sweetheart, believe me, if you had a choice I would give you one."

A tingle emerged on Amu's wrists and waist. She tried with all of her might to keep her heels dug into the linoleum but her school slippers just slipped off. Amu tried to keep a grip with her toes. It was useless since her socks just slid over a smooth surface. She sobbed, almost unable to believe that she was being forced into an adventure by the enemy for their own cause and she was currently too weak to prevent it – an enemy with more power and more powers to use explicit force than Easter. She thought as she was thrown into the blinding portal and the light turned into a bright blue sky with fluffy, white clouds: _"What can I do at a time like this when I can't fight back?"

* * *

_

Kiseki admired his work: the latest training obstacle course to keep his soldiers in shape for the fight against Easter. It started with a sprint, then went to hurdles, a maze made by rubber bands that had to be navigated whilst balancing on a ball, a tightrope that had to be crossed with a unicycle, then a trampoline to jump through a flaming hoop before running through tiny tyres taken from plastic trucks to get to the finish line. It was the ultimate test of strength, agility and endurance.

"You aren't seriously expecting us to do that, are you?" Musashi asked, staring at the course critically. "We're not circus animals."

"Ha! Of course you don't understand the true nature of this exercise. Since I am king I have to ensure my ranks are well-prepared for the fight ahead- hey!"

Pepe and Kusa-kusa had taken one of the balls from the course and were now using it to play catch. Kiseki growled and attempted to order them to return it to its rightful place but then the game of catch turned into a game of piggy-in-the-middle.

"Insolence!" Kiseki screamed. "I shall have you imprisoned for this!"

"Hey! You guys, help!" Sora shouted, flying towards the new obstacle course, knocking a flaming hoop into the dirt and bowling over two tightropes.

"What are you doing!? Have you no idea how much effort went into that outstanding course?"

"Ran, Miki and Su disappeared!" Sora exclaimed, panting as though he'd been running.

"Disappeared?" Pepe repeated.

"They were just showing me around the store room in the garden and then they suddenly disappeared into thin air all at the same time," Sora explained frantically.

"So suddenly?" Musashi asked. "This is certainly odd. But don't lose your head over it. There must be a valid explanation somewhere in all of this. I'm sure we'll find them eventually."

"How do you find something that just disappeared into thin air?" Sora cried, clearly losing his head over it.

"Nothing disappears into thin air ~dechu!" Pepe proclaimed, suddenly wearing a detective's coat and hat and smoking a bubble pipe. Kusa-kusa giggled. "We must investigate!"

"I agree," Kiseki declared, flinging his cape dramatically. "Ran, Miki and Su are invaluable members of my military force and their disappearance cannot go unsurveyed."

"Oh man, I wonder what could have happened to them," Sora moaned.

"I know you're worried," Musashi said, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder, "but this problem won't be solved by getting worked up and crying. Firstly, we should retrace your footsteps and see where they disappeared. It might just be that you lost each other."

"I hope so..."

* * *

Zexion examined the cage in the floor of the basement. The circular grate on top lay directly beneath a white lamp and six feet beneath it Roxas lay on his back with cuffs on his wrists and ankles. He hadn't said anything to Zexion, not even to ask where he was or what was going to be done with him. Zexion snorted quietly. If he wasn't interested in knowing, Zexion had no business telling him. He created himself a dark portal and left the dark underground room.

He reappeared in the foyer and put his hood up to hide his face. He sniffed and looked up to the stairs, catching the scent of someone familiar. Another member of their group was running down the stairs quickly clutching a piece of paper that Zexion knew (given that he knew who was coming) had written instructions on it. He tripped on the top of the main staircase and fell right down to the bottom. Zexion heard a pitiful moan.

"As graceless as ever, Demyx," Zexion commented for no reason other than the sake of making a statement.

"You don't have to say it like that," Demyx whined, getting up and letting the hood fall off his head. He had friendly cyan eyes and dirty blond hair styled into what Zexion thought was the most awful combination of two awful hairstyles: a Mohawk and a mullet.

"You're on a mission, I presume."

"Yeah! How'd you guess?"

Zexion looked pointedly at the piece of paper Demyx was holding. Demyx grinned sheepishly and stuffed it in his pocket – he seemed to be the only Nobody in the entire organisation who needed to carry his orders with him, else he'd forget what he was supposed to be doing. However, he mentally noted that Axel didn't seem to be very good at remembering his orders either... especially recently. He fingered the other piece of paper while his hand was still in his pocket, remembering Axel's favour. Demyx was only happy to do it, since other than Demyx himself Axel appeared to be the only person amiable enough to even pretend he had a heart. For that, Demyx was grateful.

"Uhm... I'd better be going," Demyx said quietly, realising that Zexion wasn't going to make conversation with him.

"Uhm?" Zexion repeated. He'd always thought it was a curious sound; something a bit subtle. Somewhere in the back of his memory, Zexion could swear that sound was familiar. Demyx stared at him strangely.

"O~kay... I'll just leave then. You keep up the good work too, Zex! Whatever it is you do..."

Demyx pulled his hood back up and conjured up a dark portal to step into.

* * *

So, that's the last chapter before Christmas. I'll do my best to write one before New Year's too. Actually, this took a bit of a twist that even I wasn't expecting - it just came out in the initial word vomit. I feel kinda sorry for Amu...

Also, I want to explain the significance of the two of hearts. Obviously, it's a heart card and because Kingdom Hearts is all about losing hearts to the darkness and the Nobodies want to regain hearts, well, put two and two together and the suit of hearts is pretty important. However, the two of hearts is a card that is usually low ranking but in one of my favourite card games, called 'Presents and Bastards', the two of hearts is actually the highest ranking card in the game, the lowest being the three of spades. The rules are up on my profile if you want to read them.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all. =D


	9. Character Transformation: Sage Spade

**Oh, dear...** it's been forever since I last updated. I've had a serious infection of Writer's Block - nothing much has come out of me for ages. Getting back in the game is so hard, especially after so long; I had to re-read my own story to keep grammatical consistencies for some of the terms.

If you're still even reading this story, I admire your determination. Greatly.

* * *

The sky was bright and serene and Amu felt like she would be falling forever. She hardly paid attention, sunk deep in depression until something hit her in the back of the head. She looked up. The object spun around in midair as she fell away from it. It was a jug. She blinked in confusion. What was a jug doing hovering in the sky? She looked around her. The clouds passed by slowly, as though she wasn't falling but floating downwards. Various objects were arranged upon them such as clocks, jars, baskets, books and other knick-knacks. She slid past a rocking chair and managed to land on a cushion but she was unable to keep her balance and fell off. She fell down, down, down out of the sky and into the tree canopies where the branches were also laden like shelves.

She landed on a bough with a thud, rustling the leaves and startling a bird that flew off with a squawk. Amu looked around. Along this branch there were no shelved items. There was only a single nest in the fork between two branches that contained four eggs, one of which was oddly coloured. Amu crawled across the branch to investigate the nest. When she got there and peered into the nest three of the eggs were quite small, brown-speckled things. The other was large enough to fit squarely in Amu's palm. It was decorated in black and yellow but the coloured was dimmed with a transparent film of black and a big white X. Amu's eyes widened.

"This egg... Dia. How did she get here? I thought that she had run away to Utau..." she murmured, reaching into the nest to retrieve the egg.

A bird suddenly swooped in and pecked her hand. Amu squealed and pulled it back in pain. The bird swooped and circled around her head screeching: "Serpent! Serpent!"

"Huh?" Amu gasped, looking through her arms which were shielding her from the attack. "Did you just talk?"

"Stay away from my eggs, you filthy serpent!" the bird continued to screamed. It landed on the edge of the nest and threw its wings up, trying to look more threatening. It was a plain brown bird, but it was wearing a pink apron and a blue headscarf with a little pair of spectacles perched upon her beak.

"What are you talking about?" Amu snapped. "And how do you manage to talk?"

"All creatures can talk, you ignorant cretin," the mother bird barked. "I won't let you eat my eggs!"

"I'm not here to eat your eggs," Amu assured her. "But one of those isn't yours."

"That sounds just like the kind of trick a serpent would use. Stay away!"

"I'm not a serpent! I'm a human girl!" Amu shouted back.

"Oh, really? Prove it!"

Amu blinked. "What do you mean by 'prove it'? I'm standing right here in front of you."

"Do you eat eggs?" the bird inquired.

"Well, yeah."

"Is your body long?"

"Long? Well, I am pretty tall for a girl, I guess, so I guess that's the same as saying I'm long..."

"Aha! You see? You even admitted it. You _are_ a serpent."

"That doesn't make any sense! How do I look like serpent in any way?"

"You eat eggs and you have a long body. That's proof enough that you're a serpent. But you won't get any of my eggs! Serpent! Serpent!" she shrieked.

In all of the branches around her a cacophony of panicked birds arose. Amu shoved the mother bird aside and grabbed her Heart's Egg. The mother bird swooped back and pecked her on the wrist hard enough to draw blood. Amu squeaked and lost her balance. She wobbled a bit, flailing her arms all around and fell. Leaves, branches and ceramic pots rushed past as she fell through the foliage crashed to the ground.

"Stop the egg thief!" the mother bird screamed.

Amu opened her eyes and gasped. So many birds – maybe a hundred or so – were swooping down upon her. She rolled over and pushed herself to her feet, despite her dizziness, and ran as fast as she could into the deep, dark forest.

* * *

It wasn't long before Amu regretted making that decision. The forest closed around her like an intimidating foe, dark and scary. She shivered a little. Dia's warm egg in her hand could do nothing to quell the uneasiness she felt, so she put it away in her box. She could see only one sandy path so she followed it – she obviously had no idea where it went but it was better than nothing. A strange creature jumped on her shoulders and all of a sudden her vision went blurry. She screamed and batted the thing off her face. It fell to the ground and scurried away. Amu gaped at it. Was she hallucinating or did she just see a pair of glasses with feet, a nose and a moustache scuttle into the bushes? She gulped.

As she travelled along the creatures just got stranger and stranger. A line of ducks crossed her path, but they appeared to be just toys. A large fat hippopotamus was eating grapes off a tree that was certainly not a grape tree (Amu briefly recalled that grapes grew on _vines_ not _trees_). Then a large, arrow-shaped group of colourful creatures that appeared to be just eyes, a tuft of hair and a pair of footless legs trotted past. Her anxiety deepened when she suddenly became aware of some slightly creepy singing in the trees:

'_Twas brillig and the slithy toves  
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe…_

Amu's knees began to knock together. _"W-was that a… a-a ghost?"_ she thought. She jumped and squealed when immediately after thinking that she heard the sound of snuffling and sweeping coming up behind her. A huge red… dog-thing was coming her way. The most curious thing about it, though, was that its head was shaped like a giant brush and there was a little brush on the end of its long prehensile tail. It was sweeping away the path as it went. It stopped in front of Amu, hopped aside and passed her. When it did, it hopped back on the path and continued to sweep, erasing the sandy road. It disappeared into the trees and the forest seemed to mystically close behind it. Amu's jaw dropped.

"H-how…?"

Left standing on a final square of path, Amu thought that perhaps the easiest thing would be to keep going, looking down at the ground and trying to see where the path would have gone if it was still there. She knocked her head into a tree. She let out a loud exclamation as something else dropped onto her head. She looked down at what had fallen to the ground and for once in this crazy world her face brightened. It was Miki's egg!

The egg cracked open and Miki popped out, rubbing her head a little. "Hey, what's the big idea? Who did that?" She looked up. "Amu?"

"Miki! I'm so glad to see you!" Amu exclaimed, crouching down to see her chara better. "How did you get here? You weren't with me… were you?"

"I don't know… where's here?" Miki asked. "The last thing I remember is playing with everyone in the Royal Garden and then all of a sudden I felt really sleepy and had to close my eyes. And how did you get here?"

Amu recounted everything that had happened in the classroom after school – Maleficent freezing time, throwing her into the portal and her order for Amu to deliver the Keyblade.

"Ah… that explains why you don't have any shoes on," Miki said, noting Amu's ruined socks.

"Miki, this is serious! Maleficent is seriously evil and we need to find a way to stop this! Not to mention Kuukai…" Amu choked on her sobs. "She's been the one pulling the strings. It's partly her fault that Axel did what he did to Kuukai!"

"But still, what can we do? We don't even know where we are."

"Yeah, well, the reason I bumped into this tree in the first place was because I was originally following a path through this forest, you see, but then this dog-thing came along and brushed it all away and I was trying to figure out where the path would have gone but I just crashed," Amu explained.

Miki raised an eyebrow, finding it hard to believe her. "Seriously? A dog-thing?"

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Okay, fine. Let's see if we can find this path again."

_All mimsy were the borogoves  
And the momeraths outgrabe!_

Amu shrieked in terror, startling Miki, who was already surprised by the sudden singing and the chuckling that followed. "I-i-it's that ghost!" Amu said. "It's still following me!"

"There's a ghost?"

"Oh, believe you me, I'm not a ghost," a strange silky voice that seemed to come from everywhere said.

Amu screamed again, covering her eyes. Miki looked around and gasped when she looked up into the trees. "Amu! Look!" she pointed at a particularly large bough. Amu just pulled one hand away.

On the large branch some pink stripes had appeared – not on the branch itself, they coiled around some invisible creature. Paws appeared at the end of the hands and legs. And a huge grin stretched over the head.

"You are a ghost!" Amu yelled, falling back onto her bottom.

"Then perhaps I am." Large, round eyes appeared and the stripes of the swishy tail were filled out with purple. The rest of the body soon followed the tail until it was very clear that what was lying on the bough was a cat… a fat cat.

"But you said you weren't," Miki pointed out.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," the cat said. "Maybe I could be, maybe I shouldn't be."

"You're definitely a ghost," Amu replied with conviction. "No real creature is as creepy and messed up as that! Come on, Miki, let's hurry up and find the path and get away from this thing!"

She began crawling along the forest floor, looking for any possible route. The cat chuckled. "Oh, what on earth are you talking about? There's no path here."

"But there was!"

"Actually there wasn't."

"Yes there was!" Amu argued. "I was following it and then it got erased!"

"Silly child! There was no path here for you. You should have followed the momeraths."

"What are 'momeraths'?" asked Miki. She looked at Amu who just shrugged and shook her head.

"Oh dear, have you become lost? What a tragic affair. No idea where to go, be it up or down or around and around! Perhaps you should chance to see what may be behind this tree?" The pink and purple cat stood up and jumped down behind the bough but didn't appear on the other side.

Amu huffed. "That was no help! Not to mention really, really creepy!"

"Where'd that cat go?" Miki wondered, floating around to look behind the tree. Her eyes widened. "Amu! Amu! Come here, look!"

Amu had already gone back to looking for the path but got up to see what Miki was looking at. Embedded in the tree trunk on the other side of the tree was a green door with a golden knob that was just a little bit shorter than Amu was.

"I wonder where it leads," Miki muttered.

Amu gulped. "Should… should we find out?"

However, Amu already knew what her chara's answer would be, so before Miki even replied she placed her hand on the knob, turned it, and pulled the door open.

* * *

There was a little pink egg with hearts printed on it balanced precariously on top of a rather large daisy. A black gloved hand picked it up.

* * *

The outer suburbs were always so quiet by the time evening fell. The houses were built so close together that Ikuto could skip from one to the next with ease. He trotted over the rooftops with the perfect balance of a cat and Yoru trailing behind him. He wandered aimlessly – just another evening in the life of a stray cat. However, he did have something on his mind; that strange encounter with Amu and her upperclassman. She refused to tell him what had happened (not that he'd asked) but she'd wept as though her heart had been torn, which made Ikuto feel tight-chested (not that he was jealous or anything). He suddenly stopped – just as he was about to leap onto another house – and looked behind him. A blonde woman stood behind him on the other side of the roof dressed head to toe in black. Ikuto creased his brow. Where had she come from? She hadn't been there before and he hadn't even heard her creep up behind him.

"Nya? What's with this strange lady ~nya?" Yoru meowed. "Do you wanna play?"

"Who are you?" Ikuto snapped.

The woman chuckled. "That's such a stupid question to ask." Ikuto narrowed his eyes. He was sure he didn't know this woman. "I'm not anybody, but they call me Larxene anyway."

Ikuto turned around fully to face her, glaring her down. He didn't know what to make of that answer so he stayed quiet. Hopefully she would divulge the reasons why she was there and who she was.

"I just stopped by to pick you up," she continued. "Since we were previously unaware of your existence finding out about you has got us tense and I'm not sure we're comfortable with you running free like this."

Ikuto jumped and stumbled a bit, narrowly avoiding a fall. "Are you from Easter?"

"Easter? Who'd want to work from an organisation that calls itself 'Easter'? Do I look like I'm five years old to you?" Larxene snarled. To Ikuto's shock, little bolts of lightning began to buzz around her fingers. Then, out of nowhere, eight razor sharp, blue kunai appeared in her hands.

"Yoru!" Ikuto commanded, transforming with his chara quickly just as the blonde threw her kunai. He flipped and flipped again in midair when he saw the kunai wedge themselves into the roof tiles and suddenly let out a huge charge of electricity. He landed on his feet on the next house, jaw set. That could have killed him if it had hit. They disappeared in what Ikuto could only describe as grey and white smoke tendrils (even though they looked nothing like smoke) and reappeared in her hand.

Larxene laughed. "Oh, you're pretty agile! But you can't outrun lightning."

Her arms snapped up to point straight at the sky. Ikuto looked up and sidestepped out of the way when a rain of lightning bolts showered him. Larxene saw this moment of distraction and charged in. She stabbed at him with her knives in one hand. Ikuto braced his foot against the roof gutter and blocked her with his claws. She was unbelievably strong; he could already feel the gutter buckling under his foot. Her other arm swept back and she stabbed at him again, grinning maniacally as she did so. Ikuto grabbed her wrist and tried to hold it off but those sharp blades were still shifting closer and closer to his throat despite the resistance. Larxene's eyes crinkled in delight, leaving Ikuto confused for a second. At first he felt a tingle in his hands as sparks of electricity flew from Larxene's kunai and then screamed as a giant charge surged through his body and caused him to convulse. The gutter gave away and he slipped. He landed heavily on the lawn. Larxene jumped down to try and pierce him again. With will power alone Ikuto forced his shaking body to roll over and dodge. He pushed himself to his feet, ears ringing, and jumped out of the way when Larxene swiped at him. He stumbled. That shock had been nothing like anything he'd ever felt in his life.

Larxene stood up a lot more fluidly, smirking at him but her eyes gave away the annoyance she felt for him. "Come on, just let me sink at least one of my knives into your flesh. I promise it'll hurt."

Ikuto growled at her. "Are you trying to 'collect' me or kill me?"

She licked the blade of one of her kunai. "That depends… who'll get to you first, I wonder?"

She flicked one kunai up in the air over Ikuto's head. He watched it for a moment and snapped back to attention when he saw another one coming for him out of the corner of his eye. He jumped back to avoid it, landing closer to the first kunai. Both were stuck fast in the asphalt road. Larxene grinned and all of a sudden a massive charge jumped from one to the other and back again, passing through Ikuto's body. Even though his mind was addled by the successive charges he couldn't help wondering how this was possible when the makeshift lightning rods were already grounded.

A large piece of paper fluttered to the ground and covered one of the kunai. It draped over the top as if it was actually a wet cloth and somehow stopped the charge. Purple bolts surged around the paper to demonstrate its magical power. Larxene tutted.

"I was having so much fun. Why are you ruining it, Zexion?" she asked in a lilting voice.

Ikuto turned around. On the corner of a roof sat another person dressed in a black cloak, this time a boy. His entire head was covered by the hood and in one hand he held a giant tome. Ikuto looked at it and wondered how the boy was so capable of holding it like that with such small hands.

"Take it easy, Larxene, I'll handle things from here."

"Aw! Don't you trust me?"

The boy ignored her and held his free hand out towards Ikuto. The sheet of paper that had covered the kunai rose but the kunai was nowhere to be seen underneath it. Ikuto back-stepped away from it instinctively. The paper rose and straightened out and hovered in front of Ikuto. On the face of the sheet was a picture of one of Larxene's kunai. The paper glowed and the kunai that had disappeared before shot straight back out. Ikuto ducked. The sheet began to flutter about, multiplying as it did so until there were hundreds of sheets of paper flying around the street. Ikuto tried to keep his eye on all of them at once, slashing at any that got to close.

"Don't forget about me, babe."

Ikuto turned around with wide eyes as Larxene darted into the paper storm with all of her kunai in her hands. Ikuto lifted his claws to block her again but this time she was wilier, using her thunder magic to propel one kunai as a dart while her hands busied Ikuto's. The kunai stabbed his exposed stomach. Ikuto clenched his teeth and looked down at the weapon in his body. The flesh around it felt hot and looked an angry red colour. A bit of blood leaked around it. A sheet of paper pasted itself to his side, covering the kunai. The papers were pasting themselves to him everywhere now. Ikuto pushed Larxene away and tried to slash at the papers again but she slashed at him as well, making four deep gashes on his left shoulder. A piece of paper pasted itself to the wound. These papers were cool and seemed to soothe the aches that Ikuto was getting from his wounds. He felt drowsy as the papers accumulated. Papers pasted his arms to his sides and covered him from head to toe like a mummy. A piece of paper pasted itself over his face and everything went dark. He knew he was still conscious for a while, though. Slowly the sound of papers whirling all around him disappeared as well as the feeling of papers slamming against him and sticking.

* * *

Amu stared wide-eyed with awe at the little room she'd just entered. It was a bright room with a red and pink chequered floor. Two easy chairs, a standing clock and a green bed were pushed against the left wall. On the right wall were a fireplace and a tap that seemed to have no relevant purpose being where it was. In the middle of the room was a round, white table with two matching white chairs.

Miki creased her brow, feeling conflicted. "This room… it seems artistic in some sense but it's so… so…"

"It's really random," Amu noted.

"Yeah! There's no order. I can't tell what it's supposed to express."

Amu stared at her chara. "It's a room, Miki, not art. Someone just lives here. People don't really organise their stuff in such a way as to be as artistic as possible."

"Rooms in people's houses are expressions of the kind of people who live there," Miki explained, crossing her arms. "There's a lot of art to be found in that."

A sudden splutter and a snore caught their attention. Amu squeaked and shivered, looking around frantically to see if there was another ghost in this room too. Seeing nothing, she tentatively crept around the table to get a better look at the far wall. There was a tiny door there – a tiny door with gilded hinges and a golden doorknob. Said doorknob (curiously enough) had a face and was currently snoring through its keyhole. Amu and Miki gaped at the bizarre thing, not sure what to make of it.

"That doorknob is moving by itself," Miki commented redundantly, "and making noises…"

Amu gulped and approached the doorknob cautiously, kneeling down to get a closer a look at it. She poked it in the nose and it scrunched its face up, making Amu squeal in shock. The doorknob really _was_ alive! It yawned and opened its eyes, turning them angrily towards Amu.

"What's the big idea here?" it snapped sleepily, trying to stifle another yawn. "I was having a wonderful nap. There was no reason for you to come in and interrupt."

"I-I'm sorry!" Amu stuttered. "B-but… but… wow. A moving, talking doorknob." Miki floated over and put a hand on Amu's shoulder, worrying for her owner. The pink-haired girl looked pale. "First a ghost-cat and now a talking doorknob."

"What are you getting all worked up about?" the doorknob retorted. "Don't tell me this is the first time you've seen a talking doorknob before."

"You say that as if they're common," Miki muttered loud enough to be heard.

"Well, they ought to be," said the doorknob.

"That doesn't mean they are."

"But that's no reason why they shouldn't be."

Miki screwed up her face, already frustrated with this doorknob. "What you say doesn't make sense and you know it!"

"Of course it makes sense! It makes sense to me and that's all the sense it needs to make," the doorknob argued calmly. "Do you always say things that always make sense to you? After all, it doesn't make sense if it doesn't make sense to us and it does if it does. But you don't know what makes sense to me and nor do I know what makes sense to you. But if it makes sense to you it makes sense and that sense doesn't matter to me."

"That didn't even make any sense!"

"To me it does!"

"But that doesn't count if it only makes sense to you! It has to make sense to other people too otherwise nobody can communicate," Miki protested, her face starting to go pink. "That's important for an artist, so I would know. You have to say things in a way that makes sense to lots of other people to so that they can understand you. I can't understand a thing you're trying to say."

"If my sense doesn't make sense to you what kind of sense does?" asked the doorknob.

"All I know is that my sense isn't nonsense."

Amu sighed. "You're both talking about nonsense as far as I care. Besides, I want to know what kind of thing someone keeps behind a talking door."

"You'll never find out without the key!" the doorknob exclaimed in such a manner that it seemed it didn't even want Amu to find out. "If you don't have the right key you can't open the right door."

"So you're locked," Amu guessed. "And you need a key. So then, where is the key?"

The doorknob scoffed. "Silly girl. How could you come to a locked door hoping to open it without even knowing that you needed a key?"

"Hey! We were led here by that ghost-cat! I didn't even know you'd be here," Amu huffed.

"Oh, what an excuse, but you'll never find the key anyway; you're much too small. And even if you did find the key, you'll never fit through my frame; you're much too big."

Amu blinked. "Big? Small? What are you talking about? If I'm already too big and I need to get bigger to find the key and yet smaller to fit in the door… what the…?"

Amu's brain was spinning with all of this. Miki was right, this doorknob didn't make any sense at all. With a resigned sigh, she stood up and gestured for Miki to follow her. The doorknob began to settle down again and went back to sleep. The two crossed the room and Amu sat down in one of the high-backed easy chairs. Miki sat on one of the arms wondering what Amu had in mind.

"I can't think of a good solution to this…" Amu muttered, scratching her head with both hands and ruffling her hair a bit. "If Ran was here I could maybe just chara-change with her and maybe we would be able to find the key without needing to grow big but she's not here… and even then, how would I make myself small enough to fit through the door?"

"Are you seriously thinking about going through that door?" Miki asked, looking incredulous.

"Well, I'm curious," Amu whined.

"I don't think now is the time to be curious about little things like that. Have you forgotten what predicament we're in?"

Amu looked down at her lap. "I know… we're lost, used and we can't get back home. Not yet, anyway. It's really hard being separated from all of you." She opened her box and took Dia out.

"Dia's egg!" Miki exclaimed. "Why? How? When? Didn't she run away to Utau? Why did she come back? She's still an X Egg, even…"

"I don't know… I don't know why she's here. She hasn't come out yet. I wonder if she ever will."

Miki didn't know how to answer that question so she stayed silent and looked across the room. She could see under the table all the way to the fireplace. It was mostly clear of soot and ash so it must have been cleaned recently and yet there was still a noticeable amount of it lying in the middle. _"The cleaner mustn't have done a very good job,"_ Miki thought critically but looked closer, noticing that the pile was a rather odd shape.

"I wonder what that is?" she wondered aloud. Amu looked up from her lap and put Dia's egg away.

"What's what?" she said, standing up and walking over to the fireplace, seeing that Miki was looking at it. Miki floated over as well. Amu knelt down to look into the small, dark space and gasped, grabbing the object quickly.

"This is my book bag! I wonder how it happened to get here… oh, never mind, nothing in this stupid world seems to make any sense anyway," Amu decided, shaking the bag and patting to get some of the black soot off. "It's so dirty. I bet my parents would have a fit and go crazy asking about what I've been doing if they see my bag in this condition."

Suddenly Amu gasped. She dropped her bag and shook her hands frantically. They suddenly felt as though they had ants crawling all over them. The soot fell off with ease, the first sign that it really wasn't soot at all. Then, all of the soot on the floor and on the bag began to wobble and move, sliding towards each other and forming a centralised mass that bulged and swelled. Amu stepped back quickly and hit the wall. The black mass twisted and bounced. Two fat, stubby legs with no feet were moulded and four arms folded out from the body sounding like fluttering paper. The head formed, fat and round, with a little hat like a minaret. The body was round and was dressed in an orange vest with a red tailcoat to match it. It turned its glowing yellow eyes to Amu.

"Heartless!" Amu shrieked.

The monster – as tall as her but twice as wide – bounced towards her on legs that appeared to be made out of rubber. The red batons it held in each hand were ready to strike. Amu dived off to the side and the Heartless threw its attack into the wall, which somehow didn't receive any damage. Amu picked herself up off the floor quickly and sidestepped around the table. There wasn't enough room to have a big fight. The Heartless threw itself across the room, knocking over the table and the chairs. Amu dodged but one of the flailing arms managed to strike a club across her face. She hit her head against the wall and fell the stinging and aching of what would definitely be a horrible bruise. Dizzy from hitting her head, Amu stumbled away from the wall and fell straight onto her bottom. She gulped. There was no way she could fight without her chara… wait! She still had one chara with her.

"Miki! Help!" Amu exclaimed, turning around to look at where Miki was. The blue chara was standing beside Amu's book bag, which had somehow fallen open. She appeared to be in a trance as a glass marble with an effigy of blue flames inside. Miki picked it up.

"Miki! What's wrong? You can't be playing around now!" Amu screamed. She felt a shadow on her. Knowing what was probably coming without having to look, Amu rolled out of the way but the shockwave produced by the Heartless body-slamming the ground knocked her back. Her back collided with the easy chairs. She forced herself onto her elbows and tried to push herself up, watching as the Heartless amused itself for a while by juggling its clubs. Miki held the marble close and became encased within her Heart's Egg. Amu gaped. She didn't have time to think too much about what had just happened, the Heartless was bouncing towards her again. It jumped high into the air, almost hitting the ceiling. Amu did a somersault and jumped to avoid the shockwave of the Heartless' body slam this time. She scooped up Miki's egg and stared at it. It had changed. It was still as blue as it was before but with black stars tessellated across most of it and flames superimposed over the blue spades.

"No, no, Miki! You can't go back into your egg now, I need your help!" Amu sobbed. She couldn't stop the tears from gathering.

"_Why are you crying? Just trust yourself, you'll be fine." _

"Huh? Miki was that you?" Amu asked. She didn't get a response. The Heartless struck its clubs against each other, setting them aflame. Amu turned her attention back to it, wide-eyed and teary. _"I have to protect myself,"_ was her first unconscious thought and that was all it took for her heart to open the Humpty Lock and invite Miki's egg inside.

Amu thought she would be pulled apart with this transformation, a similar feeling to that strange transformation with Ran in Twilight Town. A bright blue light wrapped around her body and when it faded Amu stared at herself in shock again. Her hair was pulled into tight pigtails with blue ribbon and she wore a long blue coat over a short, white one-piece. She had blue and white harlequin stockings, brown half-boots and a light blue beret as well.

The Heartless paid this transformation no heed. It balanced on one foot and spun around at a frightening speed, advancing on Amu like a flaming spinning top. Amu's breath hitched. _"I need a weapon… Miki usually gives me a paintbrush but last time this happened I couldn't summon the Heart Rods. It's worth a shot." _

As if listening to her will, Miki's paintbrush appeared, seemingly no different to the way it usually was. Amu grabbed it and tried to call out 'Colourful Canvas' but nothing happened. She screamed, seeing as the Heartless was far too close to be dodged and jumped as high as she could. She stomped a foot on its head as leverage to leap to the other side of the room. The Heartless lost balance and crashed into the fireplace, getting its head stuck. The fire on its batons fizzled out. Amu glared at her brush.

"Stupid thing! Why won't you work?" she shrieked, shaking the brush vigorously. As she did this, white paint began to splatter about, landing on walls, furniture and the Hearltess. Amu stopped shaking the brush and looked. The white splatters bulged and then suddenly exploded. The Heartless kicked its legs, signifying that it had felt the blasts strongly. It finally managed to pull its head out of the fireplace and cracked its batons together again. Amu paled.

"Okay… uh…" she looked at her brush tip. It was covered liberally with white paint although she still wasn't even sure what had happened.

The Heartless Bounced towards her again. Amu gulped and held her paintbrush by the end. She jabbed at the Heartless' face, pushing it away. The paint on its face also swelled and exploded but it managed to keep its balance and swung its arms at her. Amu swiped at it with her brush covered in white paint, causing explosions all over its body. She focused on trying to blow off its arms but despite those papery arms looking fragile they just would not break. She could only narrowly dodge the swinging, flaming batons and the intense heat licked at her hair, clothes and body, threatening to burn.

"_It'll be bad if I catch fire… I've got to put those things out somehow. Water?"_ Amu wondered. The Heartless swung a baton down on her like a club. Amu rolled out of the way, making sure to get some damage in by planting her brush tip on its body and dragging it along as she went. The tip suddenly turned blue halfway through. Amu blinked in confusion. While the white paint was left as a mark that would soon explode, the light blue instantly translated to water. Amu tested it briefly and saw that whenever she moved the brush a ribbon of water was created. She smiled. The Heartless turned to her after the latest explosion caused dark wisps to creep out of its first wound. Amu swung and twirled the paintbrush, running circles around the Heartless to cover it in water, dousing the flames. The water seemed to weaken it and its dark wound grew larger. The Heartless clacked its batons together again and again in a vain attempt to light them again. With a twist as her final flourish, Amu slung the paintbrush over her shoulder and admired her work. The Heartless was soaked and long, intricate puddles were left on the floor like an abstract artwork. It was good but Amu needed a way to finish it. She pulled her paintbrush back into both hands and willed all of her determination into whatever magic the paintbrush had to do more to vanquish the Heartless. She expected the paint to change colour again but instead, there was suddenly an explosion of ice on the Heartless; all of the water covering it suddenly trapped it in solid ice! Amu gaped. The air around the large statue became misted due to the cold. She thought that maybe she'd won at first but suddenly the Heartless' eyes flashed and the ice began to shake and crack. Amu took a step back but couldn't go any further because she was already up against a wall.

"I can't dodge it if it explodes!" she squealed to herself and then looked at her brush tip. "Do I have any colours that can make a shield? Or maybe help me jump higher?"

Though she wasn't sure what colour to envision for a shield. She thought white but she'd already used that and seen what it did. Jumping higher though… at first she thought of pink, like Ran, but her mind's eye turned and focused on the azure blue sky. The blue on her brush lightened. The ice began to break apart. Amu realised the danger and planted the paintbrush down between her feet, not knowing what was going to happen. The paint swirled and became a large gust of wind that tossed her up in the air just as the ice shattered. She batted away flying pieces of ice with her brush. When her feet finally touched the ceiling she thought that she would immediately push back off but was struck by the fact that gravity had somehow suddenly switched for her. She was able to stand on the ceiling without falling back down even though the Heartless was stuck on the floor. Amu wasn't sure if this was to do with her new magic or not. She looked up, seeing the Heartless still on the floor looking back up at her and trying to reignite its batons.

"Well, this brush seems to use a different power if I think of a different colour," Amu noted, looking at her brush tip again. It seemed obvious that from here she should use the white again and splatter the Heartless with exploding paint until it disappeared but another thought crossed her mind. "I wonder what would happen if I used yellow…"

The paint turned yellow. Amu gripped the handle and flung the paint upwards towards the floor. Dollops of yellow paint splashed all over the Heartless and made a mess of Amu's beautifully arranged puddles. She held the paintbrush up.

"Okay, what now?" she asked it, putting her full determination into it.

A long bolt of lightning shot from the brush tip, hitting each splotch of yellow in succession. The water on the floor and all over the Heartless magnified its intensity. The Heartless' body succumbed to huge spasms and the amount dark mist that was leaving its body increased. Unable to hold itself up after the attack, it collapsed. Its body exploded into dark fragments that evaporated into darkness immediately and dissipated. A large heart that it had held captive floated away and disappeared into the darkness. Amu sighed with relief and willingly ended her transformation. Just like Ran, Miki emerged in her egg form and hatched as soon as she could. The blue marble popped out and this time Amu caught it. Miki beamed at her.

"That was incredible! I didn't know we were capable of such power when we teamed up!" she exclaimed. "And that battle, although a little clumsy at first became a true work of kinetic art. I think I'm beginning to feel the inspiration for a new body of work coming on."

"I know… it has something to do with these little marbles that Naminé gave us… I think," Amu replied, looking at the one in her hands. "Roxas has these as well… I wonder how they work. Why does it give me all of these powers?"

"It's a Drive orb!" said a little voice. "It doesn't give you any power that you don't have, it just makes it stronger. You must have a very large amount of latent magic power to be able to execute a Wisdom Form with such proficiency."

"Huh? Miki, you knew all about this already?" Amu asked.

"I didn't say that," Miki said.

Amu paled. "Don't tell me it's another ghost…"

"Um… don't get scared…" the little voice said. "I'm not mean or anything and I don't want to frighten you, although the truth is that I can be considered to be a ghost right now."

Amu screamed. "Ghost! Ghost! Ghost! Miki, we've gotta get out of here!"

"Calm down," Miki sighed. "Just listen to her. She sounds nice and she said that she didn't want to scare you. I don't think she'll hurt you… wherever she is."

"Just take a look on the light frame."

Amu and Miki looked around the ceiling. There were two ceiling lights glowing bright yellow that were hard to look directly at. Sitting on the wooden hanger for one of them was a tiny girl – literally a tiny girl. She was the size of a chara but not of the same proportions; she had the proportions of a normal human girl but like a ghost she was transparent – she was only barely there. Amu leaned closer to get a better look at her. Her blue eyes could barely be seen due to their size but her short black hair was easily discernable. The shape of the face seemed familiar to Amu but she couldn't put her finger on why. The black cloak she wore, though, was definitely recognisable.

Amu shrieked. "You're a friend of Axel! You're one of those Organisation XIII people! And you're a ghost! Okay, you're definitely out to get me! I won't trust you!"

The small girl giggled. "I'm not here to hurt you, I promise. The only reason I have this appearance is because at one stage I thought that I was one of them. I used to have a body that was created by Organisation XIII but it's gone now. I don't work for them but I still hold on to this form. Oh, I should introduce myself properly. I… I'm not sure that I can use the name 'Sora', but while I was in Organisation XIII, they used to call me Xion."

"Xion?" Amu repeated, feeling her heart pump but now becoming more curious. "Er… w-why would you be called S-Sora… alternatively? Sora's that Shugo Chara… right?" She gulped nervously, Xion's ghost-like appearance getting the better of her.

"Well, because I kind of am Sora but not really," Xion answered cryptically. "I'm just a physical embodiment of some of his memories – his most precious ones, really. I'm not exactly sure what position I'm standing in now, though. It's like his memories are there even though they're not. But I'll try not to think about it too much otherwise I'll just get confused."

"Why are you here, Xion?" Miki asked, deliberately not elaborating on Xion's previous topic.

"Oh, I just wanted to meet you and give you advice," Xion replied. "I mean, this world is pretty crazy, right? This is a place called Wonderland. Sora was here one time and locked up a little, talking door with his Keyblade. Lots of random and unexpected things can happen. I'm not sure what, though. But keep your eyes and ears peeled and if you ever see the Cheshire cat, be sure to follow his advice too, even if it doesn't seem to make much sense."

"The Cheshire cat was that pink and purple cat we saw in the forest, wasn't it?" Miki said.

"I don't remember what it looks like, just that it's trustworthy. Oh, and if you see any member of the Organisation, you should destroy them without hesitation. That Drive orb will come in handy for that."

Amu clutched the orb tightly. "Destroy them? I… I don't know. It would be hard for me to kill a human…"

"But you must have realised by now that they're not human."

Miki nodded. "Yeah, Amu. Remember, that old Yen Sid told us that they're just Heartless dark creatures. They're the same as Heartless, they just look human."

"Yes, if you don't destroy them they'll only come back and constantly harass you until they get what they want from you," Xion explained. "Also, if you see them don't tell them you've seen me. That's really important."

"Why?" Amu asked, now feeling more at ease with Xion, even though she was technically a ghost.

"If they get to me they'll get one step closer to getting the Keyblade too," Xion said sadly. "I'm kind of glad to be free right now but at the same time I want to stay locked up."

Amu put the Drive orb away in her box. "Ugh, everything you say is so confusing! Let me get this straight: you're a part of Sora who has something to do with Roxas who has something to do with me? What's so important about Roxas? If Maleficent and Organisation XIII want the Keyblade why don't they just go after him? He's the one who has it."

Xion smiled. "It's not that easy. Yes, it's true that Roxas can summon the Keyblade but he doesn't have the power to just hand it over. It's like… you need 'special permission' to use the Keyblade."

Amu sighed and looked at the ceiling. "All this stuff about the Keyblade and Roxas and Sora is going way over my head. And now with you getting involved I'm not exactly sure who's who anymore. Sora... I thought he was just a chara but from your point of view it sounds like he's a person."

"He's very important," Xion answered and refused to divulge any more information. "So, we should do our best to protect him. Don't worry, I don't expect a lot from you; only that you do what you can. You should probably get back home, shouldn't you?"

"We should," Miki agreed. "But how do we get down from the ceiling?" she wondered, looking up to see the floor above them."

"I have no idea," Xion said truthfully. "But there's a window flap over there that will take you directly outside if you open it. I suppose that would be a start." She pointed to a brown, wooden window flap that was sealed with only a catch.

"Thank-you for your help," Amu said, feeling better already now that she would be able to finally leave the presence of this ghost. She darted over to the window and twisted the catch. The window fell open with a force of gravity that seemed illogical relative to the state they were currently in.

"Good luck! I hope you get home soon."

Miki waved goodbye to Xion as she followed Amu out of the bizarre room and into Wonderland.

* * *

A green egg ringed with clovers wiggled as it nestled amongst the baby oysters underwater. Two black gloved hands reached down slowly and scooped it up, leaving the oysters for a pair of white gloved hands.

* * *

**If you are slightly confused** then my job is done. I'll try to get another chapter up faster than i got this one up... that shouldn't be too hard, right?


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